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Presented    by     ,    T'fO^SX  d^>(S,r\\     \  ^.Wo\^> 


BL  240  .L4  1872 
Leifchild,  John  R.,  1815- 
The  higher  ministry  of 
nature 


C|«   6rat   froHnii 


THE   HIGHER 

Ministry  of  Nature 

VIEWED    IN   THE 

Light  of  Modern  Science, 

AND   AS    AN   AID   TO 

ADVANCED  CHRISTIAN  PHILOSOPHY. 

V  BY 

JOHN  R.  LEIFCHILD,  A.M., 

Author  of  '■'■  Our  Coal  Fields  and  our  Coal  Pits"  "Cormvall;  Its  Mines 
and  Miners,'''  ^'c,  df'c. 

WITH   AN   INTRODUCTION    BY 

HOWARD    CROSBY,    D.D.,    LL.D., 

Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Nezo  York. 


i 


NEW  YORK: 
G.    P.    PUTNAM     &     SONS, 

23D  Street  and  4th  Avenue. 
1S72. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION. 


The  royal  Psalmist  said,  "The  heavens  declare  the 
glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  showeth  his  handy  work." 
The  modern  Hnxleys  respond:  "The  heavens  declare 
nothing  at  all,  and  the  firmament  is  ultimately  but 
eternal  protoplasm."  In  this  happy  and  hopeful  response 
the  materialists  are  as  much  traitors  to  science  as  enemies 
to  religion.  They  ignore  all  the  facts  of  mind.  This 
whole  department  of  cognitions  is  neglected  in  arranging 
their  premises.  The  very  first  canon  of  science  is  thus 
violated,  which  demands  that  all  facts  be  collated  as  data. 
Then,  a  second  fallacy  of  which  they  are  guilty,  is  leaving 
scientific  ijroof  and  leapi7ig,  hy  the  rmagination,  to  the 
conclusion  that  life  is  merely  matter.  They  find  an 
ultimate  matter  (only  ultimate,  however,  owing  to  the 
limited  power  of  the  microscope),  and  straightway  say, 
"  this  is  /i/e,"  although  it  is  known  to  exist  without  life, 
and  has  not  a  single  characteristic  of  life  in  it.  By  such 
unscientific  methods  these  scientific  men,  whose  names 
are  now  so  famous,  have  imposed  upon  the  unlearned  and 
credulous,  and  made  men  lose  their  faith  in  the  eternal 
truths  of  God.  Darwinism  is  another  form  of  the  same 
infidelity,  working  its  evil  by  the  same  unscientific 
methods.  Darwin  leaps  to  his  conclusions  against  every 
axiom  of  science,  and  Darwinism  is,  instead  of  science, 
mere  theory.  Science  and  Eeligion  are  at  one.  They 
both  come  from  God  and  lead  to  God.  "The  heavens 
declare  the  glory  of  God,"  and  "  the  statutes  of  the  Lord 
are  right,  rejoicing  the  heart,"  are  accordant  strings  of 
the  same  harp. 


We  need  sensible  and  learned  men  to  come  forward 
and  show  the  world  what  fools  these  pseudo-scientists 
are,  and  thus  break  the  spell,  which  is  as  groundless  as 
the  Cock-lane  Ghost,  but  which  holds  so  many  all-agape 
at  their  fantastic  tricks. 

Mr.  Leifchild's  book  is  popular,  and  yet  sound  and 
thoughtful.  Its  style  is  terse  and  clear.  He  represents 
the  materialists  and  pantheists  (the  extremes  are  one) 
with  fairness,  and  exposes  the  core  of  their  absurdities, 
shoAving  the  higher  ministry  of  Nature  in  declaring  the 
glory  of  God,  yindicating  the  equal  authority  of  our 
intuitions  and  our  senses,  and  the  separateness,  yet 
intimate  connection,  of  mind  and  matter.  It  is  a  book  that 
should  find  its  way  to  every  parlor,  where  the  materialistic 
poison  has  been  scattered,  to  straighten  and  strengthen 
the  weak  knees,  and  give  color  to  the  pallid  cheek,  letting 
the  light  upon  the  frightful  spectre,  and  shoAving  it  to  be 
but  a  man  of  straw.  It  is  high  time  that  this  buffoonery 
in  the  name  of  science  were  played  out.  Scientific  and 
religious  men  must  join  to  put  out  the  intruder  with  a 
brand  upon  his  back.  To  hold  serious  talk  with  him  is 
only  to  set  him  up  in  his  assumption.  Mr.  Leifchild's 
book  exposes  him  to  the  world,  pulls  off  the  lion's  skin 
and  turns  the  public  fear  into  laughter.  Let  the  yoice  of 
truth  be  heard  through  a  thousand  such  books,  and  the 
cant  of  materialism  shrink  into  silence. 

nOWAED  CKOSBY. 


PREFACE, 


npHE  work  now  laid  before  the  reader  re- 
^  quires  an  explanatory  preface,  although  it 
sufficiently  unfolds  its  purpose  and  plan  upon 
perusal.  It  needs  some  apology  for  short- 
comings in  the  fulfilment  of  the  great  design 
which  the  author  had  proposed  to  himself;  but 
it  may  be  allowably  pleaded  that  the  field  of 
research  is  too  extended,  and  the  whole  sub- 
ject too  vast  for  satisfactory  treatment  by  any 
one  writer  in  a  volume  of  moderate  compass. 
This  book  deals  moreover,  in  many  portions, 
with  inevitable,  and  probably  insuperable  diffi- 
culties. It  occasionally  touches  upon  the  ex- 
treme limits  of  human  intelligence,  where  no 
thinker  can  hope  for  clear  solution,  in  the  pre- 
sent state  of  our  knowledge.  In  such  themes 
no  author  can  accomplish  so  much  as  he  ar- 
dently wishes,  nor  indeed  do  more  than  give, 


PREFACE, 


as  he  thinks,  a  right  direction  to  the  minds  of 
those  who  follow  his  course  of  meditation. 
Hence,  too,  it  is  certain  that  the  treatment 
must  to  the  inconsiderate  appear  fragmentary 
and  incomplete  ;  and,  to  employ  a  geological 
figure,  the  volume  may  seem  a  conglomerate  of 
angular  pieces  rather  than  a  slowly  deposited 
and  regularly  formed  sedimentary  deposit,  in 
which  layer  lies  formally  upon  layer,  and  every 
layer  denotes  orderly  succession  and  gradual 
subsidence. 

A  special  difficulty  has  been  felt  in  adapting 
the  book  to  general  perusal,  while  it  so  often 
treats  of  matters  which  are  remote  from  com- 
mon consideration.  Had  it  been  exclusively 
philosophical  in  its  form  and  language,  it  would 
have  repelled  the  mass  of  ordinary  readers,  and 
thus  have  missed  its  mark.  As  much,  therefore, 
of  popular  treatment  and  interest  has  been  im- 
parted to  it  as  lay  within  the  author's  powers 
and  the  volume's  scope ;  and  it  is  believed  that 
no  one  of  ordinary  culture  and  habitual  thought- 
fulness  will  find  any  obstacle  to  his  comprehen- 
sion of  the  whole. 

IMany  of  the  thoughts  here  recorded  have 
dwelt  in  the  writer's  mind  during  long  and  soli- 
lar}'  walks,   through   the  valleys   and  over  the 


PREFACE.  vii 


passes  of  the  high  Alps  of  Switzerland  and  the 
neighbouring  countries.  This  is  mentioned  to 
account  for  the  frequent  occurrence  of  Alpine 
metaphors  and  illustrations. 

The  author  is  fully  aware  that  his  mode  of 
controverting  some  current  hypotheses,  and  of 
treating  certain  systems,  will  fail  to  satisfy  those 
of  his  readers  who  regard  them  from  other 
stand-points  than  his  own.  This  is  inevitable, 
since  he  often  stands  upon  contested  ground. 
He  is  in  the  condition  of  one  who  wishes  to 
make  peace  between  ardent  combatants — be- 
tween nations  at  war  with  each  other.  If  he 
cannot  find  terms  and  conditions  mutually  ac- 
ceptable— if  he  be  charged  by  the  one  side  with 
demanding  too  much,  and  by  the  other  with 
yielding  too  much — if  he  be  assured  that  the 
foes  are  practically  irreconcileable,  and  that 
war  must  continue  even  to  the  extermination  of 
the  one  party  or  the  other — then  he  must  retire 
discomfited  for  the  present,  although  he  fondly 
cherishes  the  conviction  that  ultimately  peace 
will  be  secured  on  some  such  terms  as  he  has 
proposed. 

It  is  unhappily  almost  a  settled  conviction 
amongst  a  large  portion  of  the  various  existing 
religious  communities  that  modern  Science,  and 


PREFACE. 


especially  Natural  and  Physical  Science,  is 
pursued  in  a  spirit  hostile  to  Biblical  belief  and 
Christian  faith  ;  and  that  discoveries  in  Science 
are  available  rather  as  weapons  against  Chris- 
tian Faith,  than  as  aids  to  it.  Hence,  there 
has  arisen  an  indifference,  and  even  a  dread  of, 
and  an  aversion  to  scientific  studies  which  no 
Christian,  who  has  himself  gained  a  true  con- 
ception of  Science,  can  view  without  deep  regret. 
Hence,  too,  that  prevailing  ignorance  of  Natu- 
ral Science  amongst  even  many  educated  per- 
sons, which  eminent  philosophers  have  so 
plainly  exposed  and  so  loudly  lamented,  has 
been  too  patiently  tolerated. 

Those,  indeed,  of  the  present  generation 
who  are  advanced  in  life,  and  are  likewise  en- 
gaged in  active  and  absorbing  occupations, 
must  be  excepted  from  the  charge  of  voluntary 
ignorance  of  Science,  simply  because  during 
their  educational  period  many  important  disco- 
veries had  not  been  made,  and  the  books  on 
Science,  then  commonly  accessible,  were  few, 
and  incomparably  inferior  to  the  numerous 
excellent  volumes  which  now  so  frequently 
appear.  Manuals,  Handbooks,  Elementary 
Treatises,  and  condensed  and  convenient  Cy- 
clopoedias  of  Physical  and  Natural  Science,  and 


PREFACE. 


Natural  History,  form  one  of  the  leading  lite- 
rary characteristics  of  our  time  ;  and  it  is  to 
those  who  are  at  present  in  their  earlier  years, 
that  the  charge  of  culpable  ignorance  is  more 
especially  applicable,  while  by  them,  probably, 
it  is  the  less  felt  to  be  culpable,  because  Science 
itself  largely  bears  the  reproach  of  opposition  to 
religion — a  reproach  which,  as  the  author  hopes 
to  show,  has  arisen  from  misconception,  and 
from  the  perversion  of  the  scientific  knowledge 
of  things  from  its  true  tendency,  v^^ere  men's 
minds  unprejudiced  against  religion. 

If  it  can  be  shown  that  from  this  very  domain 
of  Natural  Science  the  interests  of  Relimon 
will  be  aided  rather  than  hindered ;  if  it  can  be 
established  that  the  contemplation  of  Nature, 
and  the  study  of  it  in  its  various  parts  and  pro- 
perties, and  modes  and  changes,  when  pursued 
in  a  reverential  spirit,  is  a  direct  help  to  Faith, 
and  a  powerful  promoter  of  religious  thought 
and  speculation  ;  if  it  can  be  made  manifest  that 
such  reverential  contemplation  and  research  is 
the  principal,  and,  apart  from  Revelation,  the 
only  means  of  which  we  can  avail  ourselves  in 
the  present  stage  of  our  existence,  in  order  to 
acquire  some  definite  and  adequate  conceptions 
of  the  greatness,  the  power,  the  wisdom,  and 


PREFACE. 


the  goodness  of  the  Almighty  Father;  and 
finally — if  it  can  be  rendered  apparent  that  in 
this  present  period,  far  more  than  in  any  pre- 
ceding one,  these  attributes  of  the  Deity  may 
be  exemplified  and  illustrated,  so  as  most  im- 
pressively to  strike  the  mind  of  any  one  disposed 
to  receive  impressions  and  illustrations  of  this 
kind, — then  surely  the  ignorance  of,  or  indiffe- 
rence, or  aversion  to  Natural  Science  to  which 
I  have  adverted,  will  give  place  to  zeal  in  its 
pursuit,  and  will  ensure  a  welcome  for  its  evi- 
dence and  its  suggestive  intimations. 

These  ends  the  author  humbly  hopes  to 
attain,  in  part  at  least,  by  the  publication  of 
this  volume.  It  is  not  a  systematic  treatise  on 
Natural  I'heology,  or  on  any  one  branch  of  it  ; 
neither  is  any  one  subject  treated  exhaustively  ; 
but  a  number  of  subjects  are  selected  for  con- 
sideration which  seem  best  fitted  to  secure  the 
proposed  ends,  and  to  interest  the  reader  by 
their  attractiveness  or  importance.  Although 
the  author  has  discussed  and  weighed  several 
metaphysical  and  metaphysiological  theories 
of  Natural  Phenomena;  and  has  selected  some 
results  of  very  high  research,  he  trusts  that 
every  page  of  this  publication  will  be  intel- 
ligible to  educated  readers,  who  will  bear  in 


PREFACE,  xi 

mind  that  a  book  of  the  nature  of  the  one  now 
before  them,  cannot  be  perused  without  much 
exercise  of  thought,  or  become  beneficial  with- 
out a  considerable  amount  of  reflection. 

It  appears  desirable  to  explain  in  what  sense 
the  word  Nature  is  here  employed,  since  it 
is  so  differently  and  sometimes  so  vaguely 
used.  From  the  manner  in  which  most  purely 
scientific  men  of  our  time  use  it,  we  infer  that 
by  Nature  they  mean  the  entire,  vast  scheme 
of  things  visible  and  sensible,  subordinated  to 
law  and  system.  The  various  laws  which 
govern  it  are  called  Natural  Laws,  or  the  Laws 
of  Nature,  which  are  regarded  as  universal 
and  inviolable;  and  being  so,  never  have. been, 
and  never  will  be  broken.  With  men  enter- 
taining this  view  of  Nature,  the  idea  of  anything 
Supernatural  is  excluded  from  the  realm  of  the 
Natural. 

Theologians,  Natural  or  Doctrinal,  have  em- 
ployed the  word  Nature  in  a  more  limited 
sense.  They  also  mean  by  it  the  entire  vast 
scheme  of  things  visible  and  sensible  to  man, 
and  they  likewise  regard  this  as  subordinated 
to  law  and  system,  but  as  nevertheless  a  great 
unreasoning  mechanism,  when  viewed  apart 
from  that  Divine  and  Personal  Will  which  has 


PREFACE, 


created  all  and  keeps  all  in  motion  and  in  order. 
It  is  in  this  more  limited  sense  that  most  reli- 
gious men  still  employ  the  term  Nature.  It  is 
impossible  to  use  the  word  definitely,  and  with 
uniform  precision,  in  a  volume  which  has  partly 
a  scientific  and  partly  a  religious  bearing,  es- 
pecially when  the  opinions  of  persons  are  cited, 
who  themselves  employ  the  term  in  an  indefi- 
nite manner. 

The  present  author,  as  may  indeed  be  anti- 
cipated, always  regards  Nature  as  a  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Creator's  power,  and  wisdom,  and 
goodness,  existing  apart  from  Himself,  and  as 
a  scheme  of  things  to  which  He  is  external, 
but  to  which  He  perpetually  sustains  many 
direct  relations.  It  is  an  assemblage  of  things 
which  could  not  exist  without  Him,  although 
He  could  exist  without  it.  Generally  the  con- 
ception of  Nature  adopted  in  these  pages  in- 
cludes man  and  all  that  is  in  man ;  but  often- 
times, in  conformity  with  common  language. 
Nature  is  spoken  of  as  distinct  and  separate 
from  man — and  as  teaching  him  certain  truths 
which  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  volume  to  dis- 
close and  enforce.  In  such  a  view  the  spiritual 
part  of  man  stands  at  one  time  aside  from,  and 
at  another  in  connection  with  his  material  part, 


PREFACE, 


and  he  Is  regarded  as  a  reasoning  being  In  rela- 
tion to  the  external  universe.  This,  Indeed,  Is 
the  manner  In  which  Man  and  Nature  have 
been  generally  regarded  by  Natural  Theo- 
logians, although  not  distinctly  defined  by 
them. 

Those  who  have  been  educated  In  Theological 
Schools,  and  hold  Theological  Truths  with  a 
firm  grasp.  Ignorant  of  the  Internecine  war 
waged  between  them  and  Modern  Science 
by  many  of  the  sceptical  writers  and  popular 
speakers  of  our  day,  may  think  that  I  have 
given  too  much  prominence  to  difficulties  and 
theories  which  do  not  affect  their  faith.  Let 
such  persons  but  slightly  acquaint  themselves 
with  the  pretensions  of  Positivism  and  absolute 
Naturalism,  and  they  will  alter  their  opinion. 
Able  men  are  labouring  sedulously  to  overturn 
certain  beliefs  which  we  hold  to  be  fundamental. 
Plausible  advocates  assure  us  that  the  alarm  we 
feel  as  to  the  Inroads  of  Science  upon  Religion 
are  groundless  and  foolish.  This  Is  true  of 
of  Science  Itself,  as  this  volume  alms  to  esta- 
blish ;  but  It  Is  untrue  of  certain  philosophers 
and  men  of  Science,  as  a  few  quotations  would 
establish. 

Before  me  at  this  moment  lie  the  two  large 


xiv  PREFACE. 


volumes  which  Mr.  G.  H.  Lewes,  the  advocate 
of  Positivism,  has  very  recently  (1871)  issued 
as  the  latest  and  largest  edition  of  his  clear 
and  comprehensive  History  of  Philosophy. 
In  several  pages  of  these  volumes,  and  particu- 
larly in  the  additions  now  just  published,  Mr. 
Lewes'  anti-theological  spirit  is  manifested. 
He  speaks  of  "  The  Radically  Incompatible 
Conclusions  of  Theology  and  Science;"  and 
his  favourites  are  the  determined  opponents 
of  what  is  generally  accepted  as  Theology.  Of 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  so  well  known  as  a  clever 
Evolutionist  upon  the  strictest  principles  of 
Naturalism,  Mr.  Lewes  affirms,  *'  It  is  question- 
able whether  any  thinker  of  finer  calibre  has 
appeared  in  our  country ;  although  the  future 
alone  can  determine  the  position  he  is  to  assume 
in  History.  He,  alone,  of  British  thinkers  has 
organized  a  System  of  Philosophy.  His  object 
is  that  of  the  Positive  Philosophy,  namely,  the 
organization  into  a  harmonious  doctrine  of  all 
the  highest  generalizations  of  Science  by  the  ap- 
plication of  the  Positive  method,  and  the  com- 
plete displacement  of  Theology  and  Metaphy- 


*  It  is  very  amusing  to  contrast  with  Mr.  Lewes's  encomium. 
Dr.  Porter's  severe  condemnation  of  Mr.  Spencer  and  his  phi- 


PREFACE,  XV 


Now,  if  such  be  the  aim  of  the  thinker  of 
finest  calibre  in  our  country,  a  thinker  of  a 
different  calibre  may,  however  timidly,  offer 
his  thoughts  and  conclusions.  Over  dis- 
placed Metaphysics  I  do  not  lament,  but  over 
doomed  Theology  I  may  be  allowed  to  mourn. 
Mr.  Spencer's  vaunted  system  is  nearly  com- 
pleted, and  Theology,  therefore,  is  speedily 
about  to  be  displaced  !  Before  that  removal  is 
thoroughly  effected,  I  claim  to  say  something 
on  Theology  in  connection  with  Nature.  In  so 
doing,  I  aim  to  establish  it  more  firmly,  and 
to  widen   its  foundation,   and   to   enlarge   its 

losophy,  in  an  essay  entitled  "  Science  and  Humanity,"  which 
has  been  re-pubhshed  in  England  since  this  book  was  written. 
Dr.  Porter,  th;  President  of  Yale  College,  America,  is  as  merci- 
less to  Mr.  Spencer,  as  the  latter  is  to  others  ;  and  thus  con- 
cludes : — "  No  well-read  student  of  philosophy  can  hesitate  to 
believe  that,  notwithstanding  the  zeal  of  his  admirers,  he  will 
cease  to  be  the  wonuer  of  the  hour;  that  so  soon  as  the  secret 
of  his  plausibility  is  exposed,  he  will  suffer  a  more  complete 
neglect  than  he  will  fairly  deserve."  It  is  plain  that  the  Presi- 
dent of  Yale  College  has  a  very  low  opinion  of  "Our  Great 
Philosopher,"  as  Mr.  Darwin  styles  Mr.  Spencer.  The  President 
delights  in  pointing  to  the  "  incoherencies  of  Spencer,"  for  whom 
it  appears  his  American  adherents  claim  that,  like  Kant,  he  is 
the  all-crushing  philosopher  of  these  times.  Dr.  Porter,  how- 
ever, is  the  Spencer-crusher,  and  charges  him  with  "  his  stealthy 
subreptions,  his  cool  word-plays,  his  confounding  of  inductions 
with  axioms,  and  his  sacrifice  of  common  sense  to  the  require- 
ments of  an  unproved  theory." 


PREFACE. 


scope.  Though  Natural  Theology  be  pro- 
nounced moribund,  I  am  not  yet  too  late ;  at 
all  events,  it  is  more  animating  to  pronounce 
a  defence  of  the  living  than  a  eulogy  of  the 
dead.  Possibly  I  may  reinvigorate  my  de- 
parting friend  ;  certainly  I  shall  vindicate  him 
from  unmerited  calumnies 

London. 

February^  1873. 


THE    HIGHER    MINISTRY    OF 
NATURE. 


THE  FLEETING  AND    THE  ENDURING, 

'  I  ^HE  whole  animate  creation  as  placed  upon, 
■^  and  encircled  by,  the  inanimate  masses 
of  inorganic  matter,  is  a  collection  of  things 
fleeting  in  the  midst  of  things  enduring.  Man 
in  his  present  state  of  existence,  by  sacred  and 
secular  writers,  by  poets  and  proverbialists,  is 
likened  to  many  common  things  which  are  of 
briefest  endurance.  He  is  compared  in  this  re- 
spect to  a  flower,  a  leaf,  a  blade  of  grass,  a  wreath 
of  vapour,  a  drop  of  dew,  a  cloud,  or  a  bubble. 
So  frequent  and  so  familiar  are  these  compari- 
sons, that  they  cease  to  affect  us.  Who  amongst 
us  is  led  to  reflect  deeply  on  the  brevity  of  his 
human  life  by  the  ordinary  or  even  the  Scrip- 

I 


2         THE  FLEETING  AND   THE  ENDURING. 

tural  metaphors  illustrating  it  ?  Nay  more,  the 
multiplied  cemeteries,  the  long  rows  of  tomb- 
stones, monumental  piles  and  inscriptions,  effi- 
gies and  funeral  pomp,  and  mortuary  emblems 
of  all  kinds,  lose  their  utterance  to  our  ears, 
and  their  significance  and  impressiveness  to 
our  hearts.  We  require  something  new,  or 
sudden,  or  strange,  to  enforce  their  lessons. 
Perhaps  even  that  slave  who  by  royal  com- 
mand daily  repeated  in  his  royal  master's  ear 
the  warning,  "  Remember  that  thou  art  mor- 
tal," at  length  became  monotonous  in  tone, 
and  saw  that  his  admonition  was  unheeded. 

An  unexpected  or  extraordinary  event,  how- 
ever, may  bring  us  into  the  desired  condition 
of  thoughtfulness,  and  such  an  event  which 
took  place  in  1867  at  Paris,  during  the  time  of 
the  Great  Exhibition,  will  perhaps  have  this 
effect  upon  us  at  present. 

An  Egyptian  mummy  was  unrolled  at  Paris 
in  the  presence  of  several  savants — at  the 
period  named.  There  was  indeed  nothing  par- 
ticularly novel  in  the  uncovering  of  one  of 
those  long  and  curiously  preserved  Egyptians. 
Mummies  have  been  often  unrolled  before,  and 
perhaps  nothing  worthy  of  special  record  would 
have  been  noted  of  this  embalmed  body,  but 


THE  FLEETING  AND   THE  ENDURING.        3 

for  the  singular  accompaniment  of  a  few 
leaves  in  its  armpits,  and  the  complete  preser- 
vation of  their  forms,  although  they  had  lost 
their  colour.  Here  there  certainly  was  a  very 
suggestive  fact  and  a  striking  contrast.  The 
leaves  themselves  required  no  embalming,  no 
curious  case,  no  balsamic  preservatives.  Simple 
things  as  they  were,  they  had  once  quivered  in  the 
cool  breezes  of  evening,  they  had  not  withered 
under  the  burning  meridian  beams  of  an 
Egyptian  sun,  they  had  been  refreshed  through 
every  tiny  pore,  and  along  every  thin  vein  by 
the  drenching  dews  of  heavy  night.  They 
had  been  plucked,  before  they  naturally  faded 
and  fell,  by  some  human  hand,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Nile  ;  and  now  here  they  were  in  the  city  of 
Paris,  after  having  been  torn  from  a  living  tree 
some  three  thousand  or  more  years  ago,  by  a 
living  human  hand,  and  placed  under  a  dead 
human  arm.  Here  they  were  as  well  preserved 
as  the  human  body  itself,  though  as  dry  and  as 
sapless ! 

Who  was  it  that  placed  these  leaves  under 
the  dead  arm  ?  Did  he  do  so  thoughtfully  or 
carelessly  ?  Did  he  thereby  mean  to  teach  a 
symbolic  lesson,  or  did  he  regard  these  leaves 
as  themselves  conservative  in  their  effluence  ? 


THE  FLEETING  AND    THE  ENDURING. 


Did  he  thereby  purpose  to  speak  to  a  re- 
mote posterity  on  earth,  or  thus  to  influence 
the  spirit  of  the  deceased?  We  cannot  de- 
termine, but  this  we  see — here  lie  together  two 
kinds  of  once  living  organisms — the  vegetable 
and  the  human,  and  these  two  are  both  sym- 
bolic of  a  short  life ;  both  distinct  in  outline, 
yet  both  unrecognized  in  their  minute  features  ; 
both  aHke  in  their  end,  yet  each  very  different 
in  its  previous  existence. 

Although  nothing  precise  could  be  pro- 
nounced relating  to  the  kind  of  plant  to  which 
these  leaves  belonged,  and  although  nothing 
definite  could  be  deciphered  of  the  rank  and 
character  of  the  individual  who  once  animated 
this  human  body,  yet  they  both  came  from  that 
land  of  marvels  and  mysteries,  where  even  lan- 
guage lies  entombed  in  strange  pictures,  and 
where  care  for  the  dead  often  exceeded  care  for 
the  living.  They  came  from  a  land  where  the 
Fleeting  and  the  Enduring  stand  in  more  con- 
spicuous contrast  than  in  any  other  country. 

While  men  died  and  leaves  decayed,  while 
animate  forms  lived  out  their  little  span,  and 
passed  away  as  though  they  ne'er  had  been, 
there  slowly  rose  up  by  their  side  those 
gigantic    monoliths,    those    tall,    slender    obe- 


THE  FLEETING  AND    THE  ENDURING.         5 

lisks,  and  those  massive  pyramids ;  those  mys- 
terious sphinxes  and  vast  temples,  of  which 
many  to  this  day  remain,  and  long*  will  remain, 
to  testify  to  the  bold  conceptions  and  the 
patient  toil  of  dynasties  otherwise  unrecorded, 
and  of  races  of  men  utterly  unknown.  Men 
of  to-day  can  remove  obelisks  from  Egypt  to 
Paris  and  to  Rome,  and  in  those  great  cities 
can  exhibit  to  the  moderns  the  scarcely  injured 
works  of  the  ancients ;  but  the  men  and  the 
women,  the  natural  growths  of  those  remote 
periods,  are  gone  from  this  earth  for  ever. 
Sometimes  a  mass  of  dried  flesh  and  a  few 
dried  leaves  are  exhumed  and  displayed  as  sin- 
gular relics  rescued  from  general  decay  and 
departure.  By  stones  in  temples,  by  pyramids, 
by  monoliths,  Egypt  still  in  part  endures ;  in 
her  Pharoahs,  in  her  priests,  and  in  her  many 
generations  of  common  people  ;  while  in  the 
human  race,  and  in  nearly  all  that  appertained 
to  the  daily  life  of  the  race  of  oldest  days, 
Egypt  has  been  as  fleeting  as  the  leaves  that 
once  rustled  on  the  shores  of  her  great  river. 

Nearly  the  same  tenor  of  comment  is  appli- 
cable to  the  great  world  of  Nature  in  which 
men  live  and  die  year  after  year  and  century 
after   century.      Mountains   and   rocks— those 


THE   FLEETING  AND    THE  ENDURING, 


huge  pyramids  of  Nature — remain  to  us  through 
all  time,  and  we  must  learn  from  them  what  we 
best  can.  Natural  hieroglyphics  are  recorded 
in  the  strata  composing  rocks  and  mountains, 
and  we  may  interpret  them  when,  after  long 
study,  we  have  discovered  the  key  to  their 
meaning.  But  the  once  living  things  them- 
selves— those  forms  which  once  had  voices 
that  might  have  sounded  forth  to  us — those 
forms  which  once  performed  actions,  and  dis- 
played motions  which  would  have  instructed  us 
— which  were  born  and  grew  and  died  upon  a 
soil  or  in  a  sea  adapted  to  their  existence — all 
those  living  things  have  vanished  away,  as 
though  they  had  never  lived  at  all.  The  scanty 
remains  of  them  which  are  now  found  embedded 
in  various  deposits  have  been  safely  sepulchred 
like  the  mummies  of  Egypt,  and  they  alone  are 
our  natural  hieroglyphs.  They  alone  are  the 
enduring  relics  of  innumerable  fleeting  exist- 
ences. We  ourselves  are  also  passing  away 
with  like  resultless  lives.  We  are  the  fleeting 
things  in  the  midst  of  an  apparently  enduring 
world  of  matter. 

Should  not  we,  then,  who  are  so  rapidly 
passing  away,  investigate  and  interrogate  the 
outward  world  which  has  appeared  in  immea- 


THE  FLEETING  AND    THE  ENDURING.         7 

surable  time  before  us — which  is  marked  by  an 
eventful  history  of  change  and  life — which  has 
ever  been  under  the  sway  of  wonderful,  irresist- 
ible, and  divinely-originated  laws — and  which 
may  yet  remain  under  those  laws  for  unknown 
ages  to  come  ?  If  by  assiduity  and  thought  we 
can  learn  and  record  and  leave  behind  us  some 
certain  knowledge  of  this  vast  external  world, 
of  its  hidden  secrets,  of  its  general  constitution, 
of  its  majestic  order,  and  of  its  impressive 
grandeur ;  above  all,  if  we  can  show  how  these 
its  characteristics  illustrate  the  Omnipotence, 
Providence,  and  Bounty  of  the  Creator  of  the 
entire  universe  of  things,  and  how  He  designs 
that  we  should  discern  them  in  His  works,  and 
be  drawn  nearer  to  Him  in  spirit  by  the  close 
examination  of  what  He  has  set  in  glorious 
order  before  our  eyes ;  then  we  shall  have 
served  one  principal  object  of  our  earthly  ex- 
istence. The  purpose  of  our  present  life  is  not 
to  live  in  mental  blindness,  but  to  learn  as  we 
live,  and  to  become  full  of  knowledge  and  wis- 
dom in  proportion  to  our  years.  He  who  has 
passed  through  our  great  School  of  Nature 
without  learning  its  important  lessons — without 
regarding  it,  and  listening  to  it  as  a  teacher  of 
great  truths,  and  a  symbol  of  things  higher  and 


8  THE  FLEETING  AND    THE  ENDURING. 

nobler  than  itself — might  as  well  have  been 
placed  in  a  chaotic  and  barren  planet.  He  has 
neglected  to  gather  and  store  the  sweetest 
fruits  of  Time — fruits  which  bear  in  them  seeds 
that  may  germinate  and  mature  in  Eternity. 
That  man  who  goes  from  this  world  with  no 
other  acquisition  than  gold,  or  the  memory  of 
bodily  satisfactions  and  enjoyments,  is  most  fitly 
symbolized  by  the  already-described  Egyptian 
mummy,  which  bore  no  other  final  token  of  its 
earthly  grandeur  or  industry  than  a  few  dead 
leaves  under  its  arm. 


7'IVO  MINISTRIES   OF  NATURE, 


II. 

THE    TWO  MTNTSTRIES   OF  NATURE. 

"POR  the  purpose  of  this  book,  I  distinguish 
■^  between  what  may  be  termed  the  Lower 
and  the  Higher  Ministry  of  Nature.  The  former 
is  that  by  which  she  subserves  our  present  indi- 
vidual and  collective  interests,  makes  highly 
civilized  man  what  he  now  is,  and  promises  to 
make  him  even  more  than  he  now  is,  and  to 
place  him  on  the  highest  eminence  of  physical 
attainments.  This  is  the  result  of  what  is 
commonly  styled  the  March  of  Science,  and  is 
without  doubt  a  wonderful  result.  It  mieht 
be  dwelt  upon  with  great  effect  and  at  great 
length  ;  but  to  do  this  would  be  superfluous  in 
these  pages,  and  quite  unnecessary,  since  nearly 
every  lecturer  and  popular  writer  on  Science 
takes  up  this  theme,  and  decorates  and  illus- 
trates it  with  visible  complacency  and  general 
acceptance. 


10 


TIVO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE. 


Within  little  more  than  the  period  of  the 
present  century,  the  achievements  of  Science 
have  been  marvellously  fruitful  in  practical 
benefits.  "She  has  made,"  to  employ  the 
words  of  the  Rev.  T.  W.  Farrar,  ''  the  shatter- 
ing force  of  the  electric  spark  obediently 
speed  her  messages  through  the  heart  of  iron 
mountains,  and  under  the  waves  of  raging  seas; 
she  has  kindled  her  silver  beacons  on  the  wave- 
tormented  crags,  as  though  to  light  up  an  ave- 
nue to  her  palace  front ;  she  has  enabled  the 
sailor  to  steer  in  security  amidst  the  breakers' 
wintry  surge  ;  and  the  miner  to  work  in  safety 
amidst  the  blasting  fire-damp  of  the  mine  ;  she 
has  drawn  the  forked  lightning  in  harmless 
splendour  out  of  the  purple  cloud;  she  has 
discovered  the  precious  anodyne  which  lulls  the 
senses  into  a  calm  and  dreamless  sleep,  while 
the  work  of  agony,  agonizing  no  longer,  is 
wrought  upon  the  human  frame.  With  a 
scratch  of  her  lancet  she  has  stayed  the  loath- 
some ravages  of  disease  ;  she  has  forced  upon 
reluctant  selfishness,  and  branded  into  the 
brain  of  invincible  ignorance,  those  beneficent 
laws  which  paralyze  the  fury  of  the  pestilence, 
and  restore  health  and  buoyancy  to  the  factory 
and  the  hut." 


TIVO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE.  ii 

In  every  direction  to  which  we  may  spe- 
cially turn,  we  shall  find  more  and  more  to 
excite  our  interest  in  this  March  of  Science, 
while  the  astonishing  displays,  made  of  late 
years  at  National  and  International  Exhibitions, 
have  engrossed  the  thoughts  of  men  in  the  mul- 
tiplicity, and  realized  value  of  mechanical  im- 
provements. Periodically,  too,  other  similar, 
but  superior  Exhibitions  may  be  opened  to  im- 
mense assemblies  of  mankind.  If  not,  the  world 
will  never  cease  to  be  instructed  in  the  attain- 
ments of  practical  Science,  in  the  need  and  ex- 
tension of  Technical  Education,  and  in  the 
prospects  of  an  ultimate  mechanical  millen- 
nium. 

No  right-thinking  man  will  deny  this  pro- 
gress or  under-estimate  these  benefits.  He  will 
own  and  anticipate  the  most  promising  issues ; 
and  although  this  is  comparatively  the  Lower 
Ministry,  it  has  near  relations  to  the  Higher 
Ministry  of  Nature.  In  truth,  the  two  are  inti- 
mately associated  and  mutually  helpful,  if 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other  be  displaced  or 
disproportionately  magnified.  Let  an  illustra- 
tion be  selected  from  what  is  at  this  time,  the 
most  conspicuous  and  promising  of  all  our  prac- 
tical applications  of  scientific  discovery — Tele- 


12  TIVO  MINIS  TIDIES  OF  NAT  [IRE. 


graphic  Communication.  Without  entering 
into  many  details,  I  will  simply  give  the  results 
of  the  energies  manifested  in  this  department 
of  enterprize.  In  the  year  1867,  there  were  up- 
wards of  10,000  miles  of  insulated  wire  sub- 
merged in  the  form  of  submarine  cables,  in  daily 
use  for  transmitting  intelligence  under  different 
seas ;  while  at  least  an  equal  length  was  lost  in 
the  same  form,  chiefly  by  the  development  of 
faults  after  a  lapse  of  time.  This  was  a  sur- 
prising result,  but  how  much  more  surprising 
is  the  recent  statement  of  a  careful  investigator 
of  this  subject,  who  leads  us  to  conclude  that 
the  submarine  telegraph  cables  laid  and  worked 
up  to  the  month  of  June  1870,  or  in  course  of 
manufacture,  and  about  to  be  laid  that  same 
year,  amount  to  no  less  than  32,076  nautical 
miles  in  length.  We  are  further  informed  by 
Mr.  J.  C.  Parkinson,  that  he  assumes  that  by 
the  end  of  the  year  1874,  England  will  be  sup- 
plied with  news  not  twelve  hours  old,  from  every 
part  of  the  civilized  globe.* 

Does  not  such  a  statement  suggest  something 
more  and  something  higher  than  the  mere  fact 
of  an  enormous  development  of  practical  tele- 

*  Edinburgh  Review,  No.  269,  and  J.  C.  Parkinson's  "  Ocean 
Telegraph  to  India." 


TIFO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE.  13 

graphy  ? — than  the  mere  speed  of  national 
intercommunication,  and  the  facilities  of  com- 
mercial operations  ?  Does  it  not  demonstrate 
to  us  that  mind  will  advance  as  well  as  com- 
merce, that  goodness  may  communicate  with 
goodness  between  the  ends  of  the  world,  that 
the  souls  of  men  are  now  put  into  nearer  rela- 
tionship, that  all  over  the  civilized  earth  what- 
ever is  noble,  lofty  in  aim,  benevolent,  sympa- 
thetic, and  Christian,  can  be  sent  forth  from 
soul  to  soul ;  that  the  slender  submarine  elec- 
tric wire  can  communicate  a  message  of  love 
which  no  intervening  waters  can  cool,  and  that 
if  any  man  has  a  God-like  purpose  of  promise 
in  one  country,  it  may  find  even  in  a  few  hours, 
a  welcome  home  in  every  receptive  heart  with- 
in the  entire  circle  of  nations. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  one  of  the 
deepest  desires  of  every  high-minded  student 
of  Nature  is  to  know  its  end,  its  relation  to  man 
in  time  and  in  eternity.  The  soul  that  strives 
to  free  itself  from  the  baseness  and  paltriness 
of  present  human  pursuits,  earnestly  seeks  for 
every  observable  token  of  the  presence— the  all- 
pervading  presence  of  God  in  Nature — such  a 
soul  is  not  content  with  physical  or  utilitarian 
ends.     These  may  be  good,  but  they  terminate 


74  TWO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE. 

with  the  present  life,  and  if  there  be  nothing 
higher  within  human  reach,  then  all  this  un- 
folding magnificence  and  endless  complexity  of 
Nature  seem  superfluous.  Much  less  would 
have  sufficed  for  man's  ordinary  wants  ;  if  he 
needed  only  food  and  raiment,  light  and  heat, 
a  little  cradle,  and  an  obscure  grave,  the  world 
is  too  good  and  too  grand  for  him.  Nature  is 
in  such  case,  a  richly-embroidered  garment, 
wrought  by  royal  hands  for  a  beggar  and  an 
outcast.  It  does  not  suit  him,  it  does  not  fit 
him  ;  and  it  renders  his  very  wretchedness  the 
more  conspicuous  by  its  richness  and  its  orna- 
ments. 

True  that  no  one  can  positively  say  what  the 
entire  relations  of  Nature  to  man  actually  are. 
Still  many  of  these  may  be  conjectured,  dis- 
covered, and  to  a  great  extent  gathered  from  a 
careful  and  reverent  consideration  of  the  ante- 
cedent history  of  our  earth  and  our  race,  and 
from  an  examination  of  the  emotions  and 
courses  of  thought  which  Nature  excites  in 
the  most  cultivated  and  contemplative  minds. 
If  Nature  should  awaken  similar  emotions 
in  many  similar  minds,  if  the  wider  the 
cultivation  the  greater  the  appreciation  of  her 
manifold  characteristics,  if  souls  seeking  after 


TJVO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE.  15 

communion  with  God  should  frequently  find  in 
an  enlightened  communion  with  Nature  that 
she  lifts  them  up  heavenwards  as  though  on 
eagle's  wings  ;  if  the  successive  discoveries 
of  Science  shall,  when  rightly  regarded,  be 
capable  of  arrangement  into  a  series  of  altar 
steps  stretching  through  space  upwards  towards 
the  throne  of  the  Invisible  Almighty  One, 
then  Nature  has  a  higher  ministry  than  is 
known  to  the  unreflecting,  or  cared  for  by  the 
mere  utilitarianism  of  this  life. 

It  is  the  object  of  the  present  work  to  accom- 
plish somewhat,  however  limited,  in  this  direc- 
tion, and  it  may  suggest  much  more  than  it  ac- 
complishes. Thoughts  of  this  kind,  regulated  by 
adequate  knowledge,  and  chastened  by  due  re- 
flection, appear  to  be  the  least  frequent  of  all 
associated  with  Nature.  The  poetical  imagi- 
nation, the  pictorial,  the  esthetic  in  general, 
discerns  continually  more  and  more  in  her,  and 
appropriately  depicts  it,  but  unhappily  our 
religious  instincts  and  emotions  do  not  seem 
to  have  been  brought  into  an  intimate  relation 
with  Nature.  We  do  not  habitually  resort  to 
her  as  a  great  teacher  sent  to  us  from  God  ; 
we  seldom  think  of  her  as  a  rarely  and  richly- 
stored  revealer  of  divine  truths ;  we  treat  her 


1 6  TWO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE, 

as  dumb  because  we  do  not  listen  to  her  voice  ; 
we  pass  our  lives  in  her  midst  and  think  she 
says  nothing  to  us.  We  are  like  travellers 
who  traverse  a  wood  by  night  and  are  im- 
pressed by  its  awful  silence,  not  knowing  that 
in  the  morning  every  tree  will  be  instinct  with 
visible  life,  and  every  glade  vocal  with  the 
sweetest  song.  A  thousand  singing  birds  are 
now  roosting  on  a  thousand  branches.  Dark- 
ness hides  and  hushes  them,  but  he  who  in  a 
few  subsequent  hours  follows  the  present  noc- 
turnal traveller  on  the  same  path,  will  descry 
far-spreading  green  and  brightly  coloured 
foliage,  and  rapidly  beating  wings,  and  will 
find  light  in  every  woody  interstice,  and  listen 
to  love  in  every  changeful  lay. 

The  physicist  or  naturalist,  simply  as  such, 
does  not  regard  it  as  within  his  province  to 
refer  to  this  Ministry  of  Nature  ;  he  is  en- 
gaged in  questioning  her  about  her  physical 
properties,  and  when  he  has  elicited  what  these 
are,  he  has  performed  his  part.  The  anatomist 
is  concerned  only  about  structure,  the  natura- 
list about  order  and  organization,  the  biologist 
about  life,  the  geologist  about  stratification  and 
origin  and  change  of  material,  the  paleonto- 
logist about  the  life  that  has  been  as  the  an- 


T1V0  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE.  17 

tecedent  to  that  which  now  is  on  the  earth  and 
in  the  seas.  All  these  inquirers  usually  re- 
strict themselves  within  their  respective  circles, 
and  find  more  than  enough  to  occupy  them 
therein.  Such  men  may  treat  the  suggestion 
of  a  higher  ministry  of  Nature  in  accordance 
with  the  structure  of  their  several  minds. 
Newton  and  Faraday  derived  from  their 
scientific  researches  sublime  conceptions  of 
God,  to  which,  however,  they  rarely  gave 
public  utterance.  The  number  of  religious 
students  of  nature  is  probably  greater  than 
anticipated,  and  probably  greater  than  can  be 
known,  because  many  such  are  reluctant  to 
give  prominence  to  their  opinions,  or  do  not 
court  opportunities  to  make  them  public. 
Thus  not  a  few  pious  men  pass  away  from  the 
ranks  of  science,  and  none  but  their  intimate 
friends  know  their  religiousness.  Turner  the 
chemist,  Dawes  the  astronomer,  and  several 
others  almost  unknown  to  survivors,  might  be 
named  as  examples  of  this  class. 

Others  who  have  an  incredulous  cast  of 
mind  will  either  resent  or  disregard  the  idea  of 
any  higher  ministry  of  Nature  than  that  which 
she  presents  to  them  phenomenally.  Some 
will  deny  it,  and  some  ridicule  it.     Many  will 

2 


1 8  TJVO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE, 

remove  it  into   the   region   of  the    *' unknow- 
able," or  the  "unthinkable,"  or  the  "unprofit- 
able."  Such  has  been  and  will  long  continue  to 
be  the  state  of  some  philosophic  minds  in  rela- 
tion to  Nature.  So  few  persons  investigate  Nature 
and  Science  on  their  own  account,  that  the  mul- 
titude are  apt  to   take  the  teaching  of  certain 
scientific  men  in  respect  of  morals  or  religion, 
as   the   teaching  of  Nature,    or  rather  as   the 
legitimate  issue  of  scientific  pursuits.     Nothing 
can   be   more  erroneous,   though   perhaps  no- 
thing is   more  habitual  in  unreflecting  minds. 
Nature  is  around  us,  just  as  the  Bible  is  before 
us ;   much  the  same  kind  of  treatment  is  given 
to    both.     They    who    find   little    or    nothing 
Divine  in  the  Bible  are  not  likely  to  find  much 
that  is   Divine   in  Nature.     They  who  do  not 
derive  life,  hope,  and  consolation  from  the  one, 
are  very   unlikely  to   derive  any  such  things 
from  the  other.     If  the  Bible  have   no  higher 
ministry   than    its   letter,    neither  has  Nature. 
But  as  tens   of  thousands   have    derived,  and 
will  yet  derive,  their  noblest  thoughts  and  most 
animating  hopes    from    the   Bible,   so  tens  of 
thousands  may  derive  the  same,  in  a  different 
measure  from  Nature.  . 

Throughout  these  pages  it  will  be  apparent 


ITVO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE,  19 

that  a  due  respect  is  paid  to  both  of  these  great 
teachers,    and    that    while    the    author   is   not 
indeed    forgetful    of    the    great    advances    of 
modern    criticism    in    the    explanation    of  the 
Sacred  Book,  so  he  is  on  the  other  hand  by  no 
means   unmindful    of   the   very    much    higher 
ground  on  which  any  true  religion  of  Nature 
must  be  based  than  heretofore.  And  it  is  on  th's 
very  account  that  he  thinks  his  book  may  be 
useful  to  many  even  moderately  cultivated  and 
intelligent  persons.     So  far  as  the  impressions, 
and    emotions,    and    aspirations    to    which    he 
presumes  to  give  *  utterance  are  his   own,  and 
are  the  results  of  his  personal  experience  and 
reflection,    so    far   they    may    or  may  not   be 
chargeable  with   individualism,  or  fancifulness, 
or  speculativeness,  accordingly   as   they  may 
strike  the  minds  of  various  classes  of  readers. 
Indeed,  the  same  views  may  be  taken  of  them 
as  have  been  taken  aforetime  of  the  spiritual 
treatment  of  natural  things.      They  are  open 
to  all   kinds  of  fair   criticism,   and   subject   to 
all    kinds    of    literary   animadversion.       Nay, 
to  a  considerable   number  of  naturalists,  and 
philosophers    of  material  schools  of  thought, 
they  will  be  positively   objectionable  and  dis- 
tasteful.    For  v/ithout  doubt  they   are  at  the 

2  A 


20  TWO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE. 

opposite  pole  to  much  current  teaching.  They 
strive  to  show  its  feebleness  and  its  fallacy, 
and  though  the  author's  aim  has  always  been 
to  accomplish  this  courteously  and  consider- 
ately in  respect  of  persons,  he  cannot  avoid 
speaking  as  strongly  as  he  feels  of  erroneous 
systems  and  speculations. 

That  there  should  exist  such  an  exalted  Ministry 
of  Nature  as  the  author  describes,  he  is  himself 
convinced.  That  it  may  be  made  a  most  power- 
ful and  persuasive  ministry,  he  is  likewise  per- 
suaded. That  it  will  be  made  such  in  years  to 
come  he  is  much  inclined  to  hope  and  believe. 
That  it  is  at  present  the  most  neglected  of  all 
higher  ministries,  he  is  painfully  aware.  Its 
greatest  force  will  be  exercised  in  conjunction 
with  a  Biblical  ministry,  and  not  apart  from  it. 
Separately  it  may  do  something,  but  it  will  do 
most  in  combination.  All  true  ministries  must 
grow  in  influence  by  combined  forces  which 
shall  touch  our  manifold  nature  on  all  sides. 
Any  theological  creed  which  reaches  to  and 
rests  in  one  part  of  our  nature  only,  and  which 
is  in  contradiction  to  others,  may  have  its  day 
and  its  disciples,  but  is  doomed  inevitably  to 
perish.  In  like  manner,  a  scheme  of  natural 
science  or  philosophy,  which  exclusively  touches 


TWO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE.  21 

another  side  of  our  nature,  is  equally  doomed 
to  perish.  Only  when  a  physical  hypothesis 
satisfies  all  the  requisite  conditions,  does  it 
pass  into  a  law  of  nature,  and  only  when  a 
higher  scheme  comprehends  the  whole  man, 
his  religious  instincts,  his  noblest  emotions, 
as  well  as  his  reason  and  intelligence,  can  it 
be  credited  as  universally  applicable. 

The  present  is  pre-eminently  an  age  of  inves- 
tigation, and  of  searching  inquiry  into  funda- 
mental beliefs;  consequently  there  prevail  much 
doubt  and  much  fear.  Even  in  any  one  com- 
munity of  philosophical  observers,  there  are 
wide  variances  of  opinion,  and  as  a  president 
of  one  of  the  boldest  and  least  reverent  of 
our  scientific  societies  recently  remarked  to 
the  author  respecting  the  tendency  of  certain 
researches,  *'  In  all  such  matters  no  two  of  us 
think  alike."  There  is,  as  there  should  be, 
unrestrained  freedom  of  thought  and  expression. 
Every  man  says  what  he  thinks  and  what  he 
pleases  about  religions  and  sciences,  and  there- 
fore, as  previously  observed,  the  utterance  of 
individual  opinion  corresponds  to  the  structure 
of  the  speaker's  or  thinkers  mind.  Ill-informed 
and  narrowly  circumscribed  men,  who  stand 
without,  are  appalled,  and  believe  their  lot  to 


22  TWO  MINISTRIES  OF  NA  TURE, 

be  cast  in  evil  times.  The  remedy  for  this  state 
is  not  to  retire  into  narrow  and  still  narrower 
limits,  but  to  examine  what  is  alleged,  to  see 
w^hat  really  scientific  basis  it  has,  or  has  not.  The 
march  of  science  is  in  many  respects  a  march 
of  destruction,  in  order  that  it  may  subsequently 
become  a  march  of  restoration.  If  any  man 
feel  that  he  holds  his  religious  opinions  at  the 
mercy  of  Science,  if  he  believes  only  at  the  point 
of  its  sword,  he  lives  an  unworthy  and  valueless 
life.  Baseless  superstition  is  at  the  mercy  of 
the  sword  of  Science,  and  must  be  slain  by  it. 
Where  in  the  present  day  it  exists  at  all,  it  exists 
only  by  virtue  of  an  armistice,  its  death  is 
deferred  only  by  the  grant  of  a  reprieve. 

Doubt  even,  on  great  and  vital  truths,  while 
it  is  painful  to  a  believer  in  them,  is  not  neces- 
sarily a  total  evil  to  the  community,  for  it  leads 
to  deeper  inquiries,  to  a  winnowing  of  the  chaff 
from  the  wheat,  and  to  the  re-edihcation  of 
truth  on  a  broader  and  surer  foundation.  The 
revival  of  old  infidelities  and  the  republication 
of  old  anti-theistic  schemes  in  a  new  dress  and 
with  modern  ornaments  may  be  in  one  aspect 
discouraging,  but  in  another  hopeful,  since  intel- 
ligence is  thus  kept  alive  and  vigorous,  and  no 
man  is  permitted  to  sleep  at  his  post.     He  who 


TWO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE.  23 

comes  out  of  the  conflict  victorious  has  con- 
fidence in  his  weapons,  and  for  the  future  fears 
no  human  assailant.  His  conquest  may  cost 
him  severely  in  hardship,  in  toil,  possibly  in 
hardly-healed  wounds;  but  he  cherishes  the 
just  pride  of  a  conqueror,  and  is  incomparably 
the  superior  of  the  credulous  sluggard  or  the 
self-congratulatory  coward.  All  may  be  equally 
safe,  but  who  would  compare  the  sluggard  or 
coward  with  the  conqueror  ? 

Yet  a  continued  state  of  doubt  about  funda- 
mental questions  of  religion  and  philosophy,  is 
fatal  to  the  Ministry  of  Nature.  We  must  arrive 
at  certain  fixed  points  to  which  such  ministry 
may  attach  itself;  at  certain  centres  of  truth 
around  which  it  may  circle,  and  a  certain  vene- 
ration for  the  Supreme  Being,  which  it  may 
fortify  and  illustrate.  If  the  mind  remains 
undecided  about  the  existence  and  character 
of  God  ;  if  a  man  thinks  it  to  be  best  to  hold 
such  tenets,  with  all  that  flows  from  them,  ever 
floating  about  in  a  haze  of  doubt  and  mystery; 
if  he  banishes  them  from  his  daily  meditation 
to  a  remote  region  rarely  visited  by  a  stray  and 
feeble  thought,  then  Nature  is  to  him  simply 
a  system  of  law  and  order,  never  reflecting  the 
glory  of  the  Creator,  unlit  by  any  but  natural 


24  TWO  MINIS! RIES  OF  NATURE. 


suns,  and  eloquent  about  Hipparchus,  Newton, 
and  Kepler,  and  a  number  of  great  observers  ; 
in  fact,  Nature  to  such  a  mind  is  the  mere  glori- 
fication of  the  hiofhest  human  intellects. 

The  Higher  Ministry  of  Nature  is  that  by 
which  she  serves  us  as  a  handmaid  to  Religion, 
and  becomes  our  servant  in  showing  herself  to 
be  the  servant  of  God.  This,  while  it  is  her 
higher,  so  confessedly  it  is  her  more  delicate 
and  difficult  service.  The  mind  requires  to 
be  trained  to  perceive  it,  and  the  spirit  alert 
to  receive  it,  before  it  will  be  available  or 
interpreted.  There  is  indeed  a  close  analogy 
between  the  effort,  the  patience,  and  the  per- 
severance of  the  physical  discoverer,  or  the 
mechanical  inventor,  and  the  research,  the  con- 
templation, and  reflection  required  on  the  part 
of  him  who  would  spiritually  profit  by  Nature's 
teachings.  Intimate  acquaintance  with  the  lives 
and  labours  of  scientific  observers  shows  how 
devotedly  they  have  served  Nature  before  she 
usefully  served  them.  In  like  manner,  in  re- 
spect of  Nature's  higher  ministry,  every  man 
must  become  her  devoted  attendant  before  she 
becomes  his  instructive  teacher.  If  there  be 
no  royal  road  to  geometry,  there  is  none  to 
natural  knowledge,  and  assuredly  none  to  the 


TTVO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE.  25 

higher  knowledge  of  Nature.  In  the  study  of 
this  latter,  pre-eminently  we  must  exercise  all 
our  powers,  and  patiently  and  perseveringly 
pursue  every  clue  and  every  path  that  appears 
to  lead  us  to  a  favourable  issue.  Definite  re- 
sults in  this  direction  are  not  easily  attainable, 
while  the  inquirer  is  repeatedly  baffled  and 
thrown  back  upon  the  insufficiency  of  his  facul- 
ties. In  this  region  we  are  as  children  search- 
ing in  the  twilight,  with  an  impenetrable  dark- 
ness ever  threatening  us,  and  ever  drawing 
closer  upon  us.  Some  one  has  suggested  that  as 
seekers  of  truth  we  are  like  wanderers  in  a  large 
park,  who  delight  ourselves  in  pacing  numerous 
paths,  beautifully  bordered  by  shrubs  and  plants 
and  stately  trees,  all  of  which,  though  alluring, 
nevertheless  delude  us  ;  for  whenever  we  pursue 
any  promising  avenue  to  its  end,  we  find  our- 
selves stopped  by  a  lofty  wall,  over  which  we 
cannot  look.  Everywhere  stands  the  wall.  It 
may  be  concealed  by  vegetation  ;  it  may  be  in- 
geniously hidden  by  woods  and  herbage;  circui- 
tous paths  may  be  planned  to  keep  it  long  out  of 
view,  to  wile  us  into  sideways,  and  to  beguile  us 
with  the  imagination  of  unlimited  space.  Never- 
theless on  all  sides  rises  the  wall ;  and  we  turn 
away  defeated  in  one  direction,  only  to  find  our- 


26  TTVO  MINISTRIES  OF  NATURE. 

selves  alike  defeated  in  another.  The  domain 
is  on  all  sides  bounded;  our  faculties  in  all  direc- 
tions are  limited;  we  have  only  at  best  to  explore 
what  we  can  pace  over ;  and  if  we  do  that,  we 
shall  obtain  the  utmost  results  that  our  present 
liberty  will  permit.  The  time,  however,  will 
come  when  we  shall  pass  beyond  the  baffling 
wall  into  the  unbounded  expanse  beyond  ;  and 
in  all  probability  our  acquired  knowledge  of  the 
little  paths  of  this  world  will  qualify  us  for 
future  explorations  without  limitation  and 
without  defeat. 

These  observations  naturally  lead  us  to  con- 
sider briefly  the  character  and  conditions  of 
our  present  ignorance,  how  far  it  is  removable, 
and  how  far  voluntary,  and  therefore  culpable. 


IGNORANCE.  27 


III. 


IGNORANCE: 

DEFINITIONS,     DISTINCTIONS,     RESPONSIBILITY. 

^  I  ^HAT  the  scope  of  the  following  chapters 
-^  may  be  understood,  it  is  necessary  to 
define  what  is  really  meant  by  Ignorance,  a 
term  which  is  continually  employed,  with  indis- 
tinct apprehensions  of  its  true  and  relative 
significance. 

Ignorance,  simply  stated,  is  a  deprivation  of 
knowledge,  and  therefore  an  intellectual  defi- 
ciency, but  it  may  be  very  dift'erently  viewed 
in  relation  to  its  opposite.  Knowledge.  There 
is,  for  example,  a  necessary  ignorance,  viz.,  of 
that  which  cannot  possibly  be  known,  or  the 
unknowable ;  and  there  may,  again,  be  the 
absolutely  unknowable  and  the  temporally  un- 
knowable. The  essential  nature  of  the  Deity 
may  be  considered  as  absolutely  unknowable 
by  man,  while  many  of  His  actions  and  motives 


28  IGNORANCE. 


may  be  considered  as  temporally  unknowable, 
that  is,  by  our  present  faculties,  though  possi- 
bly apprehensible  by  us  when  endowed  with 
higher  faculties  in  a  superior  state  of  being. 
The  ignorance  of  a  human  being  may  be  merely 
his  as  human,  while  equal  ignorance  does  not 
becloud  higher  orders  of  intelligence  ;  and  there- 
fore our  present  ignorance  of  many  things  as 
yet  unrevealed  is  merely  a  temporal  bar,  and 
may  be  removed  in  the  future. 

There  may  be  likewise  a  conditional  ignorance 
in  relation  to  certain  states  and  conditions  of 
the  knower.  The  ignorance  of  childhood  is 
conditional  to  that  early  stage  of  existence,  and 
is  in  gradual  process  of  abatement  as  we  grow 
up,  in  exact  proportion  to  our  efforts  to  remove 
it.  Man  at  his  birth  is  a  being  of  conditional 
ignorance ;  at  his  maturity  he  is  less  ignorant ; 
after  his  death,  if  he  has  carefully  cultivated  his 
faculties,  he  may  be  the  possessor  of  compara- 
tively enlarged  knowledge. 

The  term  ignorance,  if  strictly  used,  can  only 
be  applied  with  reference  to  that  which  may 
be  known ;  for  the  term  nescience,  properly  ex- 
presses that  which  is  beyond  the  possibility  of 
knowledge.  In  truth  there  can  really  be  an 
ignorance  only  of  that  of  which  there  can  be  a 


IGNORANCE.  29 


knowledge.  "  The  ignorance,'*  says  Ferrier, 
"  which  is  a  defect,  must  not  be  confounded  with 
a  nescience  of  the  opposites,  of  the  necessary 
truths  of  reason ;  in  other  words,  with  a 
nescience  of  that  which  it  would  contradict  the 
nature  of  all  intelligence  to  know.  Such 
nescience  is  no  defect  or  imperfection — it  is 
only  on  the  contrary,  the  very  strength  or  per- 
fection of  reason." 

Ignorance  which  is  remediable — is  morally 
culpable — and  more  or  less  culpable  in  propor- 
tion to  the  importance  of  the  object  of  know- 
ledge. There  are  many  things  of  which  we  may 
continue  ignorant,  which  it  would  be  of  some 
advantage  to  know ;  there  are  other  things 
of  which  we  may  be  ignorant,  but  which  are  of 
the  highest  moment,  and  of  which,  if  we  remain 
voluntarily  ignorant  to  the  end,  such  ignorance 
is  culpable  in  proportion  to  the  importance  of 
the  objects. 

Now,  in  this  light,  ignorance  of  what  may  be 
learned  of  the  Divine  Being,  and  His  designs 
in  the  world  around  us,  appears  to  be  voluntary 
and  culpable  ;  voluntary  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  light  and  knowledge  capable  of 
being  discovered  in  the  natural  world;  and  cul- 
pable in  proportion  to  the  value  and  elevating 


30  IGNORANCE. 


influence  of  such  knowledge  on  the  mind  in 
relation  to  God.  Moreover  this  culpableness 
increases  in  proportion  to  the  bearing  which  all 
such  knowledge  has  on  our  condition  in  a 
future  state ;  and  if  we  extend  our  ignorance 
voluntarily  to  what  belongs  to  the  state  of  the 
soul  in  the  next  life,  then  we  become  responsible 
for  all  that  we  may  there  have  to  endure.  We 
are  morally  responsible  for  all  the  neglect  of 
natural  enlightenment  which  is  voluntary,  and 
morally  culpable  for  the  loss  of  all  to  Vv^hich  it 
would  lead  us  and  all  which  it  would  illustrate 
and  corroborate. 

This  remediable,  and  therefore  morally  cul- 
pable ignorance  has  two  aspects  in  the  present 
consideration  —  one  towards  those  w^ho  are 
voluntarily  ignorant  of  attainable  knowledge  of 
Nature,  but  who  may  yet  possess  more  or  less 
acquaintance  with  spiritual  truths — the  other 
towards  those  who  are  pursuing  researches  in 
natural  things,  while  they  at  the  same  time 
voluntarily  ignore  things  spiritual.  True  know- 
ledge of  God,  and  of  Nature  in  relation  to  God, 
constitute,  in  the  author's  opinion,  the  two 
halves  of  that  grand  whole  which  ought  to  be 
the  ardently  desired  good  of  every  human  soul. 
Therefore,  as   much   blame   rests  upon  igno- 


GNORANCE. 


31 


ranee  In  one  direction  as  in  the  other.  That 
soul  is  not  in  a  healthy  condition  which  sepa- 
rates God  from  Nature  or  Nature  from  God, — 
and  moral  disease  must  be  the  consequence  of 
such  mental  severance.  There  may  be  the  con- 
ceit of  Science  as  well  as  the  conceit  of  ieno- 
ranee,  and  in  either  case  conceit  is  the  fore- 
runner of  barrenness  in  the  highest  truths. 
Hence  It  comes  that  religious  men  of  culture 
are  so  frequently  pained  at  the  opinions 
expressed  by  men  of  Science  In  public  lectures, 
and  In  books,  or  popular  papers,  designed  to 
explain  certain  results  of  their  scientific 
researches.  An  example  may  be  taken  from  a 
periodical  in  which  a  distinguished  physiologist 
publishes  one  of  his  Sunday  Evening  Lectures 
to  the  People  : — 

''  If  a  man,"  says  Professor  Huxley,  *' asks 
me  what  the  polities  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
moon  are,  and  I  reply  that  I  do  not  know;  that 
neither  I  nor  any  one  else,  have  any  means  of 
knowing ;  and  that  under  these  circumstances, 
I  decline  to  trouble  myself  about  the  subject  at 
all,  I  do  not  think  he  has  any  right  to  call  me  a 
sceptic.  On  the  contrary,  in  replying  thus,  I 
conceive  that  I  am  simply  honest  and  truthful, 
and  show  a  proper  regard  for  the  economy  of 


IGNORANCE. 


time.  So  Hume's  strong  and  subtle  intellect 
takes  up  a  great  many  problems  about  which 
we  are  naturally  curious,  and  shows  us  that 
they  are  essentially  questions  of  lunar  politics, 
in  their  essence  incapable  of  being  answered, 
and  therefore  not  worth  the  attention  of  men 
who  have  work  to  do  in  the  world.  And  he 
thus  ends  one  of  his  essays  : — 

**  If  we  take  in  hand  any  volume  of  Divinity, 
or  school  metaphysics,  for  instance,  let  us  ask. 
Does  it  contain  any  abstract  reasoning  concerning 
quantity  or  number  ?  No.  Does  it  contain  any 
experiinejital  reasoning  concerning  matter  of  fact 
and  existence  ?  No.  Commit  it  then  to  the 
flames ;  for  it  can  contain  nothing  but  sophistry 
and  illusion." 

"•  Permit  me  to  enforce  this  most  wise  advice. 
Why  trouble  ourselves  about  matters  of  which, 
however  important  they  may  be,  we  do  know 
nothing  and  can  know  nothing  ?  We  live  in  a 
world  which  is  full  of  misery  and  ignorance,  and 
the  plain  duty  of  each  and  all  of  us  is  to  try  to 
make  the  little  corner  he  can  influence  somewhat 
less  miserable  and  somewhat  less  ignorant  than 
it  was  before  he  entered  it.  To  do  this  effectually, 
it  is  necessary  to  be  fully  possessed  of  only  two 
beliefs.      The  first  that  the  order  of  Nature  is 


IGNORANCE.  33 


ascertainable  by  our  faculties  to  an  extent  which 
is  practically  unlimited  ;  the  second,  that  our 
volition  counts  for  something  as  the  condition 
of  the  order  of  events."* 

On  one  passage  in  the  above  extract,  let  us 
here  make  remarks  : — "  Why  trouble  ourselves 
about  matters  of  which,  however  important  they 
may  be,  we  do  know  nothing  and  can  know 
nothing  ?  We  live  in  a  world  which  is  full  of 
misery  and  ignorance,  and  the  plain  duty  of 
each  and  all  of  us  is  to  try  to  make  the  little 
corner  he  can  influence  somewhat  less  miserable, 
and  somewhat  less  ignorant  than  it  was  before 
he  entered  it."  In  these  sentences  lie  more 
than  one  fallacy.  First,  there  are  certain  matters 
which  it  is  confessed  may  be  highly  important 
to  us.  If  so,  the  Deity  (and  Professor  Hux- 
ley does  not  deny  His  existence),  would  not 
leave  us  in  total  ignorance  of  them.  But  what- 
ever their  importance,  we  do  know  nothing  of 
them,  according  to  the  Professor.  If  this  be 
true,  how  do  we  know  their  importance  ?  It  is 
added  that  we  ca7i  know  nothing  of  them ;  but  if 
they  are  important,  we  can  know  this  fact,  and 
it  is  presumable  that  in  proportion  to  their  im- 

*  Fortnightly  Review,  Feb.  1869. 


34  IGNORANCE. 


portance  we  ougJit  to  learn  more  of  them.  Is  not 
this  a  plain  instance  of  voluntary  and  culpable 
ignorance  ?  Is  it  not  culpable  to  reject  all 
inquiry  about  important  subjects,  although  by 
their  very  nature  they  are  incapable  of  the  same 
treatment  as  physiology  ? 

About  our  actual  position  in  relation  to  the 
present  life  and  our  eternal  destiny,  somewhat 
at  least  has  been  revealed,  and  that  somewhat  is 
of  the  highest  importance  to  us  ;  while  it  is  true 
that  we  are  largely  ignorant  of  such  things  as 
may  be  hereafter  revealed  to  us.  But  our 
present  ignorance  is  partial  and  temporal,  and, 
however  deeply  it  may  humble  us,  it  should 
never  have  the  effect  of  terminating  inquiry, 
and  benumbing  our  spiritual  instincts.  Let  us 
listen  to  the  meditations  on  this  subject,  of  one 
who  well  knew  his  ignorance  as  man,  and,  per- 
haps, dwelt  too  despondingly  upon  it ;  but  who 
at  the  time  was  acquainted  with  the  source  of 
true  knowledge,  and  rightly  estimated  the  cul- 
pableness  of  voluntary  ignorance. 

In  referring  to  the  subject  of  the  duty  of 
reflecting  on  the  end  and  purpose  of  human  life, 
Pascal  reasons  that  it  is  assuredly  a  great  evil 
to  be  in  doubt  of  this ;  but  it  is  nevertheless 
our  indispensable  duty  to  examine  things  while 


IGNORANCE. 


in  this  doubt.  He  who  doubts,  but  does  not 
seek  a  solution,  is  altogether  very  unhappy  and 
very  unjust.  If  he  be  tranquil  and  satisfied 
and  makes  a  profession  of  this,  and  finally  even 
make  his  ignorance  a  subject  of  sport  or  vanity, 
then  *'Iknow,"  says  Pascal,  ''no  terms  suit- 
able for  so  extravagant  a  being.  What  source 
of  pleasure  can  one  find  in  expecting  miseries 
without  relief?  What  theme  for  vanity  is  there 
in  finding  oneself  in  impenetrable  obscurity  ? 
And  how  can  such  reasoning  as  this  pass  for 
that  of  a  rational  man  ?  " 

"  I  know  not  who  has  placed  me  in  the  world 
nor  what  the  world  is,  nor  what  I  myself  am. 
My  ignorance  on  all  subjects  is  terrible.  I  do 
not  know  what  my  body  is,  or  my  senses,  or  my 
soul,  and  that  part  of  myself  which  thinks  what 
I  utter,  which  reflects  on  everything,  and  on 
itself;  and  has  no  better  knowledge  of  itself 
than  of  all  the  rest.  I  behold  these  appalling 
depths  of  the  universe  which  shut  me  in,  and 
I  feel  myself  fixed  to  a  corner  of  that  vast  space, 
without  knowing  why  I  am  placed  in  this  spot 
rather  than  in  another,  nor  why  the  little  mo- 
ment which  is  given  me  to  live,  has  been  as- 
signed to  me  at  this  particular  point,  rather 
than   any  other  in  the  whole  of  that  eternity 


36  IGNORANCE. 


which  has  preceded  me,  and  the  whole  of  that 
eternity  which  is  to  follow  me.  I  see  nothing- 
but  infinity  on  all  sides,  which  encloses  me  like 
an  atom,  and  like  a  shadow  which  abideth  but 
an  instant  and  returneth  not.  All  that  I  know 
is  that  I  must  shortly  die;  but  the  thing  I 
am  most  ignorant  of  is  that  very  death  which 
I  cannot  escape. 

*'  As  I  know  not  whence  I  came,  so  I  know 
not  whither  I  go,  and  I  know  only  that  when  I 
leave  this  world  I  fall  for  ever  either  into  anni- 
hilation or  into  the  hands  of  an  angry  God, 
without  knowing  to  which  of  these  two  condi- 
tions I  am  for  ever  condemned.  Behold  then 
my  state,  full  of  misery,  of  weakness,  of  ob- 
scurity. And  from  all  this  I  conclude  that  I 
ought  to  pass  my  days  without  a  moment's 
reflection  upon  that  which  shall  befall  me.  Per- 
haps I  might  find  some  ray  of  light  to  guide 
me  in  my  doubts;  but  I  will  not  take  the  trouble; 
I  will  not  take  a  single  step  to  seek  it;  and 
after  treating  with  contempt  those  who  do 
engage  in  this  task,  I  will  go  without  fore- 
thought and  without  fear  to  encounter  so  great 
an  event,  and  suffer  myself  to  be  led  softly  to 
death  in  utter  uncertainty  of  what  shall  be  my 
condition  to  all  eternity."  * 

-     *  "Pensees,"  Havet's  Ed.,  p.  135-137. 


IGNORANCE.  ^^ 


''Who  would  desire,"  says  Pascal,  ''  to  have 
for  a  friend  a  man  who  discourses  in  this 
manner  ?  Who  would  choose  him  from  others 
to  communicate  his  affairs  to  ?  Who  would 
have  recourse  to  such  a  friend  in  one's  afflic- 
tions ?  And,  in  fact,  for  what  purpose  in  life 
could  one  assign  him  a  place  ?  " 

If  we  estimate  the  value  of  different  kinds 
of  knowledge  even  by  the  utilitarian  scale  of 
measurement,  surely  that  knowledge  is  the 
most  useful  which  concerns  our  highest  being, 
and  the  longest  ages  of  our  existence.  Hence 
instead  of  such  knowledge  being  regarded  as 
superfluous,  we  may  afflrm  that  all  knowledge 
besides  is  by  comparison  superfluous,  or  in  the 
words  of  Milton, 

"  is  fume 
Or  emptiness,  or  fond  impertinence, 
And  renders  us  in  things  tliat  most  concern 
Unpractised,  unprepared,  and  still  to  seek/' 

My  present  argument  rests  in  part  upon  the 
culpability  of  ignorance  of  the  higher  ministry 
of  Nature  in  relation  to  God  and  religion  ;  and 
here  it  becomes  necessary  to  speak  of  what 
seems  to  be  knowable  and  what  unknowable  in 
Nature.  This  word  has  been  so  diversely  em- 
ployed, and  is  even  now  so  vaguely  used,  that 


38  IGNORANCE, 


it  may  be  well  to  determine  its  proper  accept- 
ance. We  hold,  then,  the  term  Nature  to 
express  the  totality  of  all  corporeal  or  material 
existences  such  as  they  have  been,  are,  and  will 
be,  with  their  diverse  activities,  and  with  the  in- 
variable laws  which  govern  those  activities.  It 
is  therefore  the  totality  of  second  causes  dis- 
tinct from  and  acted  upon  by  first  and  free 
causes.  God  is  the  great  and  perfect  First 
Cause,  and  though  omnipresent  is  not  to  be 
confounded  consubstantially  with  Nature,  but 
is  distinct  from  it,  though  throughout  directive 
of  it.  And  we  believe  the  whole  scheme  of 
Nature  when  rightly  interpreted,  illustrates  His 
perfections  and  promotes  a  perpetual  recogni- 
tion of  them  by  human  beings.  This  we  take 
to  be  the  higher  ministration  of  the  totality  of 
things  around  us,  while  numerous  secondary 
and  temporary  purposes  are  served  by  the 
scheme  of  Nature,  many  of  which  purposes 
man  discovers  by  scientific  research,  and  applies 
to  his  own  benefit  by  practical  skill. 

It  is  maintained  by  the  soundest  thinkers 
that  of  the  essences  of  things  we  must  remain 
ignorant  in  this  world,  for  phenomena  are  not 
the  manifestations  of  hidden  essence,  but  only 
the  result  of  the  relations  of  things  between  each 


IGNORANCE.  39 


Other.  Here  we  speak  of  things  material  and 
of  necessary  limits,  as  in  the  biological  and  phy 
sico-chemical  sciences.  Adopting  the  expression 
of  Claude  Bernard,  in  all  kinds  of  experimental 
science,  when  we  have  found  the  nearest  cause 
of  a  phenomenon,  in  determining  the  simple 
condition  and  circumstances  in  which  it  mani- 
fests itself,  we  obtain  the  scientific  object  or 
end  which  we  cannot  pass  beyond. 

The  phenomena  then  which  we  behold  are  by 
no  means  the  manifestation  of  the  undiscover- 
able  essences  of  things,  but  merely  the  results 
of  their  relation  to  each  other;  so  that  two 
things  become  known  to  us  by  their  relations 
or  their  contrasts  to  each  other.  Both  are  objects 
of  knowledge  only  by  relation  or  by  contrast. 
Thus  the  idea  of  empty  space  would  not  present 
itself  without  its  opposite  idea;  viz.,  of  full  or 
penetrable  space.  Each  of  these  ideas  is  a 
unit  of  knowledge  which  we  can  consider  in  turn, 
although  the  one  originally  revealed  the  other. 
Hence  we  must  always  have  two  units,  and  a 
relation  or  contrast  between  them  to  form  a 
cognition.  All  our  knowledge  of  things  natu- 
ral is  therefore  simply  relative. 

It  would  be  beyond  our  design  to  enter  into 
farther  details  respecting  the  doctrine  of  the 


40  IGNORANCE. 


alleged  relativity  of  all  human  knowledge,  and 
to  distinguish  the  differences  of  opinion  on  this 
doctrine  entertained  by  metaphysicians.  Mr,  Mill 
has  clearly  and  sufficiently  shown  these  differ- 
ences in  his  Examination  of  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton's Philosophy;  but  it  is  as  well  to  notice 
that  some  philosophers  believe  that  the  Noume- 
non  or  thing,  per  se,  is  in  itself  a  different 
thing  from  the  Phenomenon,  and  is  equally  or 
more  real ;  but  that  though  we  know  its  exist- 
ence, we  have  no  means  of  knowing  what  it  is  ; 
all  that  we  can  know  is  relatively  to  ourselves, 
the  modes  in  which  it  affects  us,  or  the  phe- 
nomena which  it  produces.  Other  and  perhaps 
the  greater  number  of  philosophers,  hold  that 
we  know  things  partly  as  they  are  in  themselves, 
and  partly  as  they  are  in  relation  to  us. 

For  the  considerations  involved  in  these 
pages,  it  is  quite  sufficient  to  take  the  phe- 
nomenal as  the  object  of  scientific  intelligence, 
and  as  the  ground  of  reasoning.  We  need  not 
here  discuss  degrees  of  relativity,  but  may  deal 
directly  with  the  phenomenal  as  that  which  is 
within  universal  cognition. 

But  beyond  and  above  all  that  appertains 
to  scientific  or  natural  knowleilge  we  have  to 
erect   a    higher   and    holier    superstructure — 


IGNORANCE.  41 


the  important  superstructure  of  spiritual  ap- 
prehension and  of  faith,  founded  upon  re- 
vealed truth.  In  the  region  of  spiritual  ap- 
prehensions, of  psychological  intuitions,  and  of 
religious  faith,  we  aim  at  far  higher  results 
than  the  phenomenal.  We  are  not  content  with 
the  nearest  cause  of  a  phenomenon  ;  for  we 
seek  the  farthest  and  the  first  cause.  In  Science 
we  cannot  pass  beyond  the  scientific  object ;  in 
Religion  we  can  and  do,  even  by  taking  the 
nearest  cause  into  account,  and  as  a  step  in 
our  advance  to  the  first.  We  proceed  the 
more  surely  because  we  have  previously  taken 
this  step  in  our  progress,  and  it  is  the  object  of 
all  worthy  religious  philosophy  to  compre- 
hend natural  phenomena,  and  not  to  suppose 
that  they  assume  an  attitude  of  perpetual  con- 
tradiction to  it. 

An  appropriate  illustration  may  be  taken  in 
regard  to  the  human  soul.  Professor  Owen 
recognizes  no  advantage  in  speaking  of  ''an 
immaterial  entity,  mental  principle,  or  soul." 
Professor  Huxley  affirms  that  ''matter  and  spirit 
are  both  names  for  imaginary  substrata  of 
groups  of  natural  phenomena."  He  also  sig- 
nifies that  thought  is  the  effect  of  protoplasm, 
yet   that   protoplasm    exists  without   thought. 


43  IGNORANCE, 


Here  I  have  no  concern  with  the  philosophical 
defect  of  this  argument,  though  it  has  been 
noticed  that  it  violates  a  first  principle  of  induc- 
tion, viz.,  that  the  cause  of  a  fact  must  precede 
it  when  it  does  take  place,  and  that  we  can 
only  omit  this  precedence  when  it  does  not 
take  place.  Here  my  concern  is  this :  two  dis- 
tinguished naturalists  do  not  recognize  as  phi- 
losophical the  cognizance  of  soul  or  thought  in 
the  form  of  a  distinct  spiritual  principle.  This 
may  be  called  a  statement  consistent  with  our 
knowledge  of  the  phenomenal,  and  of  nothing 
beyond  it.  Am  I  on  this  account  justified  in 
disbelieving  the  existence  of  any  soul  ?  Either 
I  believe  in  its  existence  as  a  distinct  spiritual 
principle,  or  I  do  not.  If  I  do,  am  I  unphiloso- 
phical  ?  if  I  do  not,  am  I  irresponsible  ? 

If  I  believe  it,  I  plainly  go  beyond  the  mate- 
rially phenomenal ;  if  I  disbelieve  it  I  deny  the 
possibility  of  any  psychology,  not  to  say  the 
dictates  of  revealed  truth,  which  in  many  places 
assumes  the  existence  of  the  soul,  and  bases 
human  responsibility  upon  our  care  for  it,  and 
use  of  it.  But  because  I  adhere  to  psychology, 
and  because  I  believe  in  revealed  truths  con- 
cerning the  soul,  am  I  therefore  neglecting 
the  limits  of  the  phenomenal,  and  overpassing 


IGNORANCE,  43 


the  boundaries  of  any  true  knowledge  ?  As- 
suredly not ;  I  am  in  such  belief  obedient  to 
a  conviction  out  of  and  beyond  the  range  of 
the  phenomenal,  but  not  contradictory  to  it. 
With  such  a  conviction  I  may  be  still  strictly 
philosophical  in  all  that  relates  to  the  philosophy 
of  the  phenomenal  world,  and  strictly  correct 
in  what  relates  to  the  supra-phenomenal  world, 
to  which  the  higher  ministry  of  Nature,  as 
well  as  the  constant  teaching  of  Revelation 
conduct  me.  I  may  entertain  the  profoundest 
respect  for  the  scientific  attainments  of  Pro- 
fessors Owen  and  Huxley,  and  fully  confide  in 
their  physical  and  biological  science  ;  but  be- 
yond that,  and  in  relation  to  the  soul,  I  may 
altogether  disagree  with  them,  and  feel  myself 
quite  capable  of  judging  of  the  existence  and 
distinctness  of  my  soul.  Their  justly-granted 
reputation  rests  not  upon  their  psychology 
or  anti-psychology.  Recognition  of  the  soul 
rests  upon  supra-phenomenal  science. 

Here,  then,  we  see  how  responsibility  for 
our  knowledge  of  things  surpassing  the  phe- 
nomenal, finds  its  due  place.  Ignorance 
cannot  be  pleaded  to  bar  this  responsibility, 
since  we  are  as  much  bound  by  the  supra-phe- 
nomenal world  in  our  higher  as  by  the  phe 


44  IGNORANCE. 


nomenal  in  our  lower  nature.  The  soul  being 
recognized,  it  has  its  needs,  its  sustentation, 
its  proper  objects,  and  its  destiny.  These  form 
the  conditions  of  all  higher  human  life,  and  the 
satisfaction  of  these  is  as  imperative  in  the 
spiritual  kingdom  as  the  satisfaction  of  bodily 
wants  in  the  corporeal  and  material.  A  man 
ought  not  to  remain  in  ignorance  of  the  de- 
mands of  any  one  part  of  his  compound  nature. 

Outside  of  the  province  of  the  physical  and  ^ 
phenomenal  there  lies  the  whole  region  of  our 
primary  intuitions  which  are  not  controlled  by 
physicism.  Hence  come  our  conceptions  of 
causation,  of  free-will,  of  morality,  of  responsi- 
bility, of  God.  With  those  who  denounce  our 
primary  religious  conceptions  as  unscientific, 
we  can  hold  no  argument,  for  we  have  no  com- 
mon ground  of  standing.  In  despite  of  such 
persons,  we  say  there  is  a  science  of  the  supra- 
phenomenal  as  well  as  of  the  physical,  and  you 
cannot  monopolize  the  term  science  and  always 
limit  it  to  the  physical.  If  you  deny  the  possi- 
bility of  a  true  science  of  the  supra-phenomenal, 
then  for  you  at  least  who  deny  it,  there  is  no 
goal  but  complete  scepticism,  within  the  black 
shadow  of  which  all  varieties  must  vanish — all, 
God,   man,  self,  others  than  self,  personality. 


IGNORANCE.  45 


individual  existence — in  short  all  distinctions 
and  all  certainties.  This  is  nihilism,  universal 
scepticism,  in  which  the  word  ignorance  has  no 
proper  place. 

With  the  inherent  difficulties,  doubts  and 
indefiniteness  of  our  primary  intuitions,  the 
purely  physical  school  often  contrast  what  they 
are  wont  to  term  the  ''  certainties  "  of  physical 
science  and  its  methods.  This  language  is  how- 
ever in  a  great  measure  illusory,  and  quite  unsuit- 
able by  way  of  disparagement.  Nothing  would 
be  easier  than  to  specify  some  of  the  uncertainties 
of  physical  science  and  its  methods.  What  are 
called  the  "  exact  sciences  "  can  only  be  justly 
so  called  by  comparison.  Absolutely  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  an  exact  science,  for  the  ex- 
actness is  merely  relative.  To  quote  the  lan- 
guage of  a  scientific  writer.  Professor  Jevons, 
borrowed  from  his  lately  published  Theory  of 
Political  Economy  :  "  Astronomy  is  more  exact 
than  the  other  sciences,  because  the  position  of 
a  planet  or  a  star  admits  of  close  measurement, 
but  if  we  examine  the  methods  of  physical 
astronomy,  we  find  that  they  are  all  approxi- 
mate. Every  solution  involves  hypotheses  which 
are  not  really  true :  as,  for  instance,  that  the 
earth  is  a  smooth,  homogeneous  spheroid.   Even 


46  IGNORANCE. 


the  apparently  simpler  problems  in  statics  or 
dynamics  are  only  hypothetical  approximations 
to  the  truth.  We  can  calculate  the  effect  of  a 
crow-bar,  provided  it  be  perfectly  inflexible,  and 
have  a  perfectly  level  fulcrum,  which  is  never 
the  case.  The  data  are  almost  wholly  deficient 
for  the  complete  solution  of  any  one  problem  in 
natural  science." 

Were  a  contrast  to  be  drawn  between  the 
methods  of  physical  science  and  primary  intui- 
tional knowledg-e,  it  might  be  drawn  in  favour 
of  the  greater  certainty  of  the  latter,  inas- 
much as  primary  intuitions  are  bound  up  with 
consciousness,  and  are  direct  exercises  of  it, 
productive  of  immediate  effects,  while  mathe- 
matical conclusions  require  the  intervention 
of  a  train  of  reasoning. 

Although  then  we  cannot  be  culpable  for 
nescience,  we  are  so  for  not  seeking  and  satis- 
fying all  attainable  cognitions, — especially  if 
these  are  acknowledged  as  proposed  objects  of 
pursuit,  and  as  attended  with  corresponding 
mental  and  moral  benefits.  Such  we  cannot 
but  think  are  the  Divine  intimations  in  the 
scheme  of  Nature  as  manifested  to  our  minds, 
and  as  presented  to  us  for  perpetual  inquiry. 
And  if  our  present   position   in   relation   to  it 


IGNORANCE.  47 


be  that  of  highly  capacitated  beings, — of 
beings  specially  qualified  to  comprehend  pro- 
gressively more  and  more  of  the  seen  in  order 
that  we  may  thereby  be  led  ardently  to  desire 
higher  capacities  and  larger  and  fuller  revela- 
tions, then  voluntary  ignorance  is  not  only  a 
loss  but  a  sin.  It  is  the  choosing  of  darkness 
rather  than  light. 

When,  moreover,  we  believe  that  the  whole 
visible  universe  is  a  magnificent  representation 
of  the  power  of  the  Creator,  and  the  beneficence 
of  the  Provider,  then  the  sinfulness  of  remaining 
wilfully  ignorant  of  what  he  has  revealed  of 
himself  becomes  more  apparent ;  and  the  ques- 
tion of  our  responsibility  for  neglect  of  opportu- 
nities of  knowing  Him  in  His  mighty  and 
manifold  works  comes  before  us  for  deliberate 
consideration. 

In  proportion  to  our  conviction  of  the  real  pur- 
port of  our  present  life  in  relation  to  God,  will 
be  our  sense  of  this  responsibility.  If  we  feel 
that  the  chief  object  of  our  existence  is  to  know 
the  Divine  Being  in  all  the  relations  he  sustains 
to  us,  and  to  do  all  that  such  knowledge  will 
prompt  us  to  perform,  and  if  we  admit  that  our 
opportunities  of  knowing  Him  in  outward  nature* 
are  many  and  perpetual,  and  more  than  ever  so 


48  IGNORANCE. 


in  the  present  age  of  the  world,  with  its  brighter 
lights,  and  surer  methods  of  observation,  and 
numerous  aids  and  instrumentalities  ;  then,  em- 
phatically, may  we  pronounce  upon  human 
responsibility  in  relation  to  a  sanctified  know- 
ledge of  nature.  We  shall  urge  upon  ourselves 
and  all  men,  that  this  is  one  of  the  most  in- 
cumbent duties  of  our  daily  life,  as  well  as  one 
of  its  highest  delights.  We  shall  not  take 
shelter  under  a  presumed  incapability  of  tracing 
God  in  his  works  ;  we  shall  not  magnify  the  diffi- 
culties, or  rest  contented  under  an  endless  night 
of  human  ignorance ;  while  we  lament  that  we 
cannot  know  more,  we  shall  study  to  know  what 
is  really  knowable.  We  shall  be  deeply  sensible 
that  we  cannot  here  expect  to  see  God  as  He  is, 
but  as  He  chooses  in  His  wisdom  to  be  seen  by 
us  ;  and  that  if  we  wilfully  close  our  eyes  to 
what  He  here  shows  of  Himself  and  of  His 
attributes,  it  will  be  but  a  just  judgment  upon 
us,  if  in  another  life  we  should  be  far  removed 
from  His  glory,  and  consciously  responsible 
for  our  distance  from  the  Source  of  light 
and  love. 

Men  have  too  long  been  accustomed  to  regard 
responsibility  merely  in  a  religious  sense,  and 
as  limited  to  the  sphere  of  what  is  termed  Di- 


IGNORANCE.  49 

vine  grace,  and  to  overlook  the  fact  that  re- 
sponsibility to  God  is  as  extensive  with  his  entire 
manifestations  of  Himself.  Let  us  freely 
admit  that  responsibility  is  broad  and  universal, 
and  to  discern  that  it  is  so,  we  have  only  to  read 
St.  Paul's  words  in  Romans  i.  18-20.  "The 
wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven  against 
all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of  men, 
who  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness.  Because 
that  which  may  be  known  of  God  is  manifest  in 
them,  for  God  hath  shewed  it  unto  them.  For 
the  invisible  things  of  Him  from  the  creation  of 
the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by 
the  things  that  are  made,  even  His  eternal  power 
and  Godhead  ;  so  that  they  are  without  excuse." 
If  gentiles  and  heathens  were  thus  without  ex- 
cuse for  not  observing  the  Divine  light  shining 
in  the  ''things  that  are  made,"  what  greater 
decrree  of  inexcusableness  must  attach  to  Chris- 
tians  of  this  age  for  averting  their  eyes  from 
the  multiplied  lights  of  centuries  of  observa- 
tion, and  the  broad  beams  of  this  century  in 
particular,  which  most  brightly  illustrate  the 
"invisible  things"  of  God." 

This  responsibility  we  may  term  natiu^al.  In 
order  to  distinguish  it  from  spiritual  responsi- 
bility, which  latter  may  be  held  to  have  regard 

4 


50  IGNORANCE. 


to  the  revelation  of  grace  as  commonly  under- 
stood ;  although  in  truth  all  responsibility  must 
hold  in  reference  to  the  individual,  and  to  the 
Personal  God  to  whom  the  individual  is  account- 
able for  all  that  he  is  and  all  that  he  enjoys. 
And  of  natural  responsibility  be  it  observed 
that  it  clearly  rests  upon  voluntary  and  on  re- 
mediable ignorance;  the  willingness  being 
judged  of  by  the  opportunity  of  removing  it, 
and  the  remediableness  by  the  faculties,  and  the 
position  of  every  man  in  relation  to  existing 
knowledge.  He  who  is  frequently  engaged  in 
studying  the  constitution  of  the  world  of  matter 
— the  student  of  science  in  general,  and  of  any 
natural  science  in  particular,  by  neglecting  the 
light  that  such  studies  should  throw  upon  divine 
truth,  and  on  his  own  standing  as  a  dependant 
upon,  and  a  w^orshipper  of  God — may  be  in- 
curring a  solemn  responsibility  upon  which 
he  has  seldom  duly  reflected,  and  which  perhaps 
he  has  never  rightly  estimated.  He,  again, 
who  is  not  professedly  conversant  with  such 
studies  cannot  on  that  account  cast  off  all 
responsibility,  for  he  is  accountable  for  what  he 
might  attain,  if  he  would  fairly  and  fully  exercise 
his  natural  powers  of  observation  and  reflection. 
It   must    continually   and   strongly   be   im- 


IGNORANCE,  51 


pressed  on  the  good,  though  half  and  scarcely 
'half-informed  men  of  Christian  Churches  that 
a  serious  responsibility  rests  upon  them  on  their 
side ;  and  here  I  prefer  to  quote  the  words 
of  a  great  Christian  writer,  rather  than  to  ap- 
pear to  presume  in  my  own.  On  this  topic 
Coleridge  pointedly  observes:  ''  If  acquiescence 
v/ithout  insight,  if  warmth  without  light ;  if  an 
immunity  from  doubt,  given  and  guaranteed  by 
a  resolute  ignorance ;  if  a  mere  sensation  of 
positiveness  substituted — I  will  not  say  for  the 
sense  of  certainty — but  for  that  calm  assurance, 
the  very  means  and  conditions  of  which  it 
supersedes ;  if  a  belief  that  seeks  the  darkness 
and  yet  strikes  no  root,  immoveable  as  the  lim- 
pet from  the  rock,  and  like  the  limpet,  fixed 
there  by  mere  force  of  adhesion  ;  if  these  suffice 
to  make  men  Christians,  in  what  sense  could 
the  apostle  affirm  that  believers  receive — not, 
indeed,  worldly  wisdom  that  comes  to  nought, 
but  the  wisdom  of  God  that  we  iiiight  knoiv  and 
comprehend  the  things  that  are  freely  given  to 
us  of  God?  On  what  grounds  would  He 
denounce  the  sincerest  fervour  of  spirit  as  de- 
fective where  it  does  not  likewise  bring  forth 
fruits  in  the  Understanding?" 


52      THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE. 


IV. 

THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE. 

'T^HE  course  of  human  studies  has  separated 
-*-  between  ecclesiastical  and  natural  theo- 
logy more  for  reasons  of  convenience  than  from 
any  really  necessary  distinction.  There  is  only 
one  God  in  Nature  and  in  Grace,  the  same 
author  of  Natural  and  Biblical  Revelation.  He 
manifests  Himself  to  us  in  divers  manners,  but 
always  in  divine  characters.  In  the  universe  and 
in  the  Bible  He  is  the  same,  only  two  revelations 
display  themselves  to  us  from  one  source. 

Natural  and  Spiritual  religion  are  therefore 
two  branches  from  the  same  root.  An  old  tree 
will  sometimes  (and  one  in  particular,  a  singu- 
lar thorn-tree,  suggests  this  analogy  to  the 
writer),  send  up  divided  trunks  and  branches, 
which  soon  fork  out  in  opposite  directions,  and 
seem   to  be  distinct   growths.      In   winter,    a 


THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE.      53 

spectator,  may  think  so  ;  for  he  sees  nothing  but 
bare  and  knotted  ramifications.  Let  him,  how 
ever,  tarry  till  the  summer  time,  and  then  he  will 
behold  the  leafage,  and  the  flowering,  and  the 
fruitage,  as  alike  the  products  of  one  hidden 
and  buried  root.  So  is  it  with  Natural  and 
other  Theologies. 

The  religious  student  of  Nature  will  ultimately 
escape  from  the  heated  atmosphere  of  the  halls 
and  the  schools,  and  discern  that  true  and  broad 
religion  is  not  the  product  of  a  particular  place 
or  a  special  priesthood.  Ecclesiastical  The- 
ologies are  at  best  but  the  vestments  of  real  re- 
ligion. They  may  change  with  the  creed,  the 
church,  and  the  era.  Some  adopt  one  and 
others  another  vestment ;  some  are  dazzled  with 
the  showy  embroidery  of  one  garb,  others  are 
delighted  with  the  simple  purity  of  another. 
On  one  there  is  an  array  of  fine  needlework,  of 
systematic  network,  of  nice  distinctions  ;  in 
another  there  is  a  prevalent  simplicity  and  a 
colourless  uniformity.  So  it  ever  has  been,  and 
so  probably  it  will  long  continue  to  be  through 
the  various  ecclesiastical  vicissitudes  of  Chris- 
tendom. He  who  looks  dispassionately  upon 
the  systems  of  his  own  day,  as  they  pass 
before  him,  will  perceive  that  they  are  all  at 


54      THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE, 

best  but  varied  vestments,  while  he  feels  that 
there  is  a  living  and  enduring-  personality  be- 
neath them  all.  If,  indeed,  these  flowing  vest- 
ments often  hide  rather  than  hallow  the  living 
personality,  still  the  thoughtful  observer  will 
reflect  that  the  garments  may  be  put  off  while 
the  personality  remains.  The  disrobed  religion 
is  vital  still,  and  most  adorned  when  unadorned. 
It  possesses  a  superhuman  principle  of  exist- 
ence. It  may  be  disguised,  but  it  cannot  be 
destroyed.  It  is  vital  above  time,  though  it 
passes  through  ti.me.  It  is  powerful  beyond 
place,  though  it  exists  for  destined  periods  in 
numerous  localities.  Men  may  contend  for 
long  centuries  to  come,  as  they  have  contended 
for  long  centuries  past,  about  its  investiture — 
about  embroideries,  borders,  symbols,  emblems, 
and  colours.  Respecting  these,  men  may  com- 
bat with  such  animosity  as  to  forget  the  living 
thing,  and  even  to  slay  each  other  in  ecclesi- 
astical zeal.  Nevertheless  they  cannot  slay 
the  thing  itself  It  is  a  thought,  a  creation  of 
the  living  God.  He  made  it,  like  man,  in  His 
own  image,  and  He  planted  it  in  the  heart  of 
man  as  His  own  reflection. 

This  is  the  essential,  the  everlasting  religion 
to  which  Nature  ministers  with  a  holy  and  efti- 


THEOL  O  GIES  A  ND  NA  TURA  L  SCIENCE,      5  5 

cient  ministry.  To  ecclesiastical  vestments  she 
has  nothing  to  say ;  they  belong  to  Art  and  to 
Fashion,  and  change  with  them.  True,  she  may 
be  forced  to  give  a  momentary  countenance 
to  them,  but  the  fair  flowers  plucked  from  her 
bosom  soon  perish,  even  on  the  gaudiest  altar, 
where"  they  have  no  root  and  no  nutriment. 

He  who  thinks  the  devout  contemplation  and 
study  of  Nature,  and  the  Sciences  explaining 
Nature,  to  be  one  of  the  chief  ends  and  one  of 
the  most  glorious  privileges  of  man's  present 
existence,  finds  the  two  classes  of  persons  al- 
ready referred  to  equally  indisposed  to  agree 
with  him,  the  one  thinking  natural  religion 
unnecessary,  and  even  injurious,  to  revealed 
religion,  and  the  other  regarding  revealed 
religion  as  unnecessary  and  as  injurious  to 
scientific  pursuits.  From  the  former  class  we 
hear  the  narrowest  conceivable  applications  of 
great  religious  doctrines  ;  from  the  latter,  the 
most  limited  and  exclusive  applications  of  great 
scientific  truths.  The  Christian  student  of 
Nature  sometimes  finds  a  strono-  barrier  raised 
against  his  endeavours  to  unfold  science,  in  the 
one-sidedness  of  the  views  of  contracted  Chris- 
tians, who  affirm  that  the  one  great  doctrine  of 
Redemption   by  Jesus    Christ    is    exclusively 


56        THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE. 


sufficient  for  all  the  powers  of  the  mind,  and 
that  it  exercises  and  fills  all  its  capacities  apart 
from  natural   religion.     They  do  not  perceive 
how  this  exclusive  view  would  narrow  the  good- 
ness of  God  to  one,  albeit  the  greatest,  act  of 
His  unfathomable  love.     They  do  not  under- 
stand that  the  new  relation  of  Sons  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus,  while  it  includes  and  exalts  the 
old  relation  of  Sons  of  God  by  nature,  does  not 
abolish  u.    The  new  creature  cannot  destroy  the 
significance  of  the  old,  and  the  Creator  always 
stands   in  a  paternal  relation   to  the   created. 
Once  this  was  the  only  relationship  on  earth ; 
another  is  now  added  to  it,  but  does  not  extin- 
guish i-.     Doubtless  Redemption  is  the  central 
truth  of  Revelation,  but  by  no  means  the  sole 
truth  ;  and  he  who   thinks  that  there  is  little 
else  in  this  world  and  in  all  worlds  worthy  of 
investigation  forgets  that  this  and  other  worlds 
have    existed    for   ages,  with   all    their  varied 
natural   endowments,    and  all  their  successive 
forms  of  lite,  in  as  entire  dependence  upon  the 
Creator  and  the  Provider  as  they  now  exist  ; 
and    that    they  have    illustrated,    and   do  still 
illustrate,  the  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness  of 
God,  in  a  manner  which  exalts  to  the  highest 
our  conceptions  of  the  Deity.     To  behold  the 


THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCLENCE.     57 

sun  of  our  system  is  indeed  a  good  and  a  plea- 
sant thing ;  but  to  gaze  so  fixedly  and  long  upon 
our  sun  as  to  become  dazzled,  and  afterwards 
incapable  of  beholding  any  star  in  the  amply  and 
broadly-illuminated  sky,  is  not  the  method  of 
gaining  a  knowledge  of  the  wonderful  and 
boundless  glories  of  the  whole  heavens ;  while 
to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  some  of  the  innu- 
merable and  independent  stars  by  no  means  de- 
tracts from  the  splendour  and  magnitude  of 
the  sun  of  our  system. 

I  conceive  the  Ministry  of  Nature  to  be  a 
corrective  of  isolated  and  narrow  views  of  the 
Divine  character,  and  of  the  dealings  of  the 
Deity  with  man.  While  imprisoned  within  the 
bars  of  circumscribed  creeds,  and  fettered  by 
illiberal  and  sentential  interpretations  of  Holy 
Writ,  the  character  of  God  in  relation  to  man 
too  often  appears  utterly  inconsistent  and  con- 
tradictory, and  in  such  cases  no  alterative  in 
psychical  therapeutics  is  so  effective  as  an  ex- 
cursion into  the  broad  domains  of  natural 
knowledge.  There  Nature  becomes  medicinal 
even  to  the  saving  and  strengthening  of  Faith. 
Are  we  habituated  to  regard  God's  action 
towards  us  individually  as  hard  and  severe  ?  Do 
w^e    see   ourselves  only  environed   by  an  iron 


58      THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE, 

necessity  and  impelled  towards  an  inevitable 
doom  ?  Do  we  discern  nothing  but  perplexity 
before  us,  and  nothing  but  disappointment 
behind  us  ?  The  remedy  for  such  a  state  of 
mind  is  not  to  be  found  in  casuistical  disqui- 
sitions— not  in  the  mental  food  which  has 
perhaps  disordered  us — not  in  keener  and  more 
torturing  introspection,  but  in  wider  and  bolder 
circumspection — in  gazing  openly  and  fre- 
quently on  the  scheme  of  Nature,  in  observing 
there  that  notwithstanding  numerous  apparent 
instances  of  harshness,  of  suffering,  of  disease, 
death,  and  waste,  still  the  whole  grand  system 
of  things  marches  onward  by  irresistible  move- 
ments to  its  full  displays  of  growth,  increase, 
and  all-surmounting  vitality. 

We  are  thus  wholesomely  impelled  towards 
a  large  circle  of  thought  and  a  broad  outline 
and  proportions.  He  only  does  full  justice  to  the 
manifestations  which  God  vouchsafes  of  Him- 
self to  his  earthly  children,  who  endeavours  to 
.  view  them  in  their  various  lights,  and  to  treat 
them  as  he  would  a  many-sided  crystal,  by 
turning  it  in  different  directions  and  examining 
all  its  faces,  delighting  himself  in  it  at  every 
variation  of  its  lustre,  prizing  it  the  more  for 
every  additional  hue  which  it  may  display  in  its 


2'HEOL  O  GIES  A  ND  NA  TURA  L  SCIENCE.      59 

different  changeable  positions.  Every  molecule 
of  a  crystal  is  in  some  sort  itself  a  crystal ;  every 
particle  of  truth  is  in  like  manner  in  some  sort 
divine,  but  in  its  final  and  definite  completeness 
alone  does  the  pure  crystal  reflect  ample  light. 
So  let  us  reflect  the  union  of  all  the  divine  truths 
in  nature  and  in  grace.  They  form  together 
a  perfect  crystal  of  many  sides,  each  and  all  of 
them  reflecting  the  glory  of  one  Sun. 

The  manner  in  which  the  natural  creation 
leads  us  to,  and  confirms  in  us  our  idea  of  its 
relation  to  God  has  been  so  clearly  expressed 
by  a  modern  writer,  that  I  quote  his  statement : 

''  We  find  in  the  works  of  God,  illustrations 
of  his  revealed  attributes.  It  is  in  connection 
with  the  contemplation  of  these  that  we  find  at 
once  the  application  of  our  fundamental  belief, 
and  the  unfolding  of  that  primary  knowledge 
which  is  involved  in  it.  Everything  which  God 
has  created  or  done  must  be  a  manifestation  of 
His  nature  to  His  intelligent  creatures.  We 
are  capable  of  observing  and  comparing  the 
works  of  God,  and  by  this  means  we  are  able 
to  form  certain  conceptions  not  only  concerning 
these  works  themselves,  but  also  concerning 
the  Being  by  whose  agency  they  have  been 
originated  ;  and  if  in  all  our  observing,  forming 


to      THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE. 


of  conceptions,  and  reasoning  upon  them,  we 
only  regulate  the  mind  in  submission  to  our 
necessary  belief,  our  observations,  conceptions, 
and  reasonings,  will  all  involve  a  discovery  of 
truth  concerning  the  Divine  nature.  It  is 
indeed  clear  that  the  works  of  God  are  only  a 
limited  manifestation  of  His  nature,  and  there- 
fore equally  clear  that  by  means  of  these  we 
can  only  attain  a  limited  knowledge,  but  it  is  , 
impossible  on  that  account  to  deny  that  we 
reach  a  positive  knowledge  of  the  Infinite 
God.  ...  If  God  has  created,  His  works 
of  creation  have  been  performed  in  harmony 
with  His  own  nature,  and  a  finite  creation  is  a 
manifestation  of  the  Infinite  God  to  His  intel- 
ligent creatures. 

*'  Our  observation  of  the  works  of  creation  is 
not  prosecuted  for  the  purpose  of  rising  by 
slow  stages  to  the  conviction  of  the  Divine 
existence.  Our  belief,  as  necessary,  arises  by 
the  simple  contemplation  of  any  object.  We 
therefore  start  with  the  conviction  that  there  is 
One  Infinite  Being,  and  all  our  observation  is 
prosecuted  for  the  purpose  of  enlarging  our 
knowledge  of  His  nature.  In  this  we  must  be 
continually  regulated  by  our  fundamental  belief, 
which   involves   an    immediate    knowledge   of 


THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE.        6i 

God.  With  it  to  guide  us,  we  are  saved  from 
attributing  the  marks  of  power  or  of  wisdom 
which  we  behold  in  the  world,  to  a  Being 
possessed  only  of  the  measure  of  power  or 
wisdom  needful  for  the  accomplishment  of  these 
results.  Among  all  the  works  of  Nature,  our 
observation  presents  to  view  nothing  more 
than  the  finite,  and  the  only  reason  why  we 
believe  in  an  Infinite  Being,  or  look  on  the 
objects  around  us  as  the  works  of  such  a  Being, 
is  that  the  recognition  of  the  Infinite  One  is 
given  in  our  very  nature.  This  alone  explains 
why  it  is  that  the  finite  creation  is  not  attri- 
buted to  a  finite  cause,  or  why  we  do  not  think 
of  God  only  as  a  Being  able  to  accomplish  all 
we  see  around  us.  Whatever  exercise  of  our 
logical  faculty  there  m.ay  be  upon  the  works  of 
God,  leading  to  the  formation  of  certain  con- 
ceptions concerning  the  Divine  nature,  it  is 
regulated  by  a  primary  belief  which  is  com- 
pletely above  the  logical  faculty,  and  not  liable 
to  be  tested  and  criticised  by  its  rules.  This 
being  kept  in  view,  the  way  is  clear  for  a  con- 
sideration of  the  legitimate  exercise  of  human 
thought  in  connection  with  this  subject. 

"  In   the  entire  works  of    God,  the   logical 
faculty  finds  a  basis  from  which  it  may  rise  up 


62         THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE. 


to  meet  the  declarations  of  faith.  Since  by  the 
authority  of  an  original  belief  within  us,  testi- 
mony is  borne  to  the  existence  of  one  Infinite 
Originator  of  all  finite  existence,  man,  as  an 
intelligent  creature,  must  seek  to  form  clear 
and  satisfactory  conceptions  in  harmony  with 
his  faith.  Every  form  of  existence  is  to  him  a 
field  of  inquiry,  in  which  to  learn  somewhat  of 
the  Great  Being  who  has  created  all.  While 
our  nature  may  involve  a  revelation  concerning 
the  Divine  existence  and  attributes,  we  must 
discover,  arrange,  and  interpret  for  ourselves 
the  facts  which  are  disclosed  in  the  works  of 
God.  This  is  the  province  of  the  logical  faculty; 
and  by  earnest,  laborious  efforts  we  must  seek 
to  extend  our  study,  and  gather  for  ourselves 
new  conceptions  of  the  Divine  glory,  which 
will  call  forth  more  fully  the  light  shining  from 
within. 

*' It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  there  are 
here  two  distinct  lines  of  contemplation  which 
the  logical  faculty  may  "^mx^mq— firstly,  what 
the  facts  of  Nature  are ;  and  secondly,  what  the 
facts  of  Nature  teach  concerning  the  Creator. 
These  two  are  quite  distinct,  and  may  be  so 
completely  separated  that  the  first  may  be  con- 
sidered without  the  least  regard  to  the  second ; 


THEOLOGIES  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE.        63 

but  the  second  can  be  prosecuted  only  in  the 
degree  in  which  the  first  is  pursued.  The  first 
leads  to  the  discovery  and  classification  of 
certain  facts,  which  go  to  constitute  a  body  of 
scientific  truth ;  the  second,  making  use  of 
these  classified  facts,  rises  by  their  aid  to  the 
formation  of  certain  conceptions  concerning 
the  Infinite  Creator.  In  this  way  Science  is 
the  handmaid  of  Philosophy  and  Religion.  The 
deeper  we  carry  our  research  into  the  wonders 
which  Nature  discloses,  the  further  do  we 
extend  our  acquaintance  with  the  works  of 
God,  and  accumulate  the  materials  that  enable 
us  to  enlarge  our  conceptions  of  the  Divine 
attributes.  In  this  way  we  can  re-classify  for 
ourselves  facts  from  all  the  Sciences  according 
as  they  present  marks  of  the  power,  or  the 
wisdom,  or  the  goodness  of  the  Infinite  Creator. 
We  can  thus  form  separate  conceptions  of  the 
power,  wisdom,  and  goodness  of  God,  and, 
gathering  all  these  together,  we  can  form  a 
conception,  the  most  grand  and  awe-inspiring 
of  the  Infinite  and  Absolute  Being."* 

*  Calderwood's  "  Philosophy  of  the  Infinite/'  2nd  edit.,  i86r, 
pp.  148 — 152. 


64  THE  GREAT  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  SOLUTION'. 


Y. 


TILE   GREAT  PROBLEM,  AND   OUR  MEANS 
OF  SOLVING  IT, 

T  1^  THAT  can  we  possibly  know  of  the  Great 
^  ^  Creator,  Himself  the  Uncreated  and  In- 
scrutable One,  from  our  little  corner  of  the 
Universe  and  with  our  circumscribed  powers  ? 
This  is  the  constantly-recurring  question  through 
all  time — the  self-proposed  question  of  anxious 
and  inquiring  minds  of  men  humbly  and  de- 
voutly feeling  after  Him,  if  haply  they  may 
find  him.  In  a  hundred  forms  the  question  is 
varied  and  repeats  itself,  and  we  necessarily 
repeat  ourselves  in  our  partial  answers  to  it. 
We  cannot  excogitate  a  well  compacted  body  of 
Natural  Divinity  in  reply ;  we  cannot  parcel  out' 
our  knowledge  into  a  systematic  treatise,  and 
proceed  by  axioms,  and  postulates,  and  numbered 
problems,  till  we  arrive  at  mathematical  cer- 
tainties.    The  whole  result  is  at  best  a  groping 


THE  GREAT  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  SOLUTION.   65 

through  darkness  that  may  be  felt,  if  it  hap- 
pily be  darkness  that  may  ultimately  be  dis- 
pelled. 

The  pedestrian  in  the  Alps  sometimes  meets 
with  a  number  of  huge  ant-hills — huge  as  com- 
pared with  those  of  England — which  a  playful 
fancy  may  presume  to  have  been  erected  at  the 
foot  of  truly  huge  mountains  as  if  in  mimic 
mockery  of  their  grandeur.  Both  are  homes 
of  silence,  yet  both  suggest  a  comparison  and 
a  contrast  replete  with  significance  to  us.  Dis- 
turb the  still  and  soundless  ant-hill  with  your 
staff,  and  in  a  moment  it  is  populous  with  agi- 
tated insects  who  run  in  all  directions,  as  though 
feebly  resenting  the  power  and  rudeness  of  the 
human  intruder.  Conceive  for  a  moment  one 
of  those  insects  as  coming  forth  to  study  some 
enormous  snow-mountain  above  him,  a  moun- 
tain which  is  so  many  million  times  bigger 
than  his  own  disturbed  earth-dome,  though 
that  has  cost  him  and  his  myriads  of  co-ope- 
rators so  much  labour  to  accumulate  and  com- 
plete. Conceive  that  the  ant  sagely  speculates 
upon  the  way  in  which  the  Jungfrau  or  the 
Eiger  or  the  Monch  or  Monte  Rosa  was  built 
up  particle  by  particle,  mass  by  mass,  peak  by 
peak;  that  it  has  and  strenuously  contends  for 

5 


66    THE  GREAT  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  SOLUTION. 

a  system  of  geology,  for  a  chemistry  of  rock- 
formations,  for  a  prevalent  direction  of  Alpine 
chains,  for  periods  of  glacial  prevalence  and 
waste,  for  a  theory  of  glaciers  and  moraines, 
and  for  all  that  interests  and  perplexes  us  as  men 
in  these  regions  of  grandeur  and  beauty.  Can 
any  conception  be  more  disproportionate  to 
probabilities,  more  ridiculous  or  fanciful? 
And  yet  is  not  man  such  an  insect,  engaged  in 
such  a  hopeless  and  disproportionate  inquiry, 
when  from  his  little  mount  of  remotely  rolling 
earth  he  speculates  on  the  nature  and  attributes 
of  the  great  God  so  incomparably  above  him, 
so  incomprehensibly  beyond  him  ? 

In  one  sense  he  is,  in  others  he  is  not.  In 
respect  of  all  comparison  he  is,  in  respect  of  a 
possibility  of  partial  comprehension  he  is  not. 
The  ant  builds  up  his  mimic  mountain,  and  has 
then  done  his  work ;  he  is  not  capacitated  to  do 
more,  and  what  he  is  capacitated  to  do  he  per- 
forms well  and  perseveringly.  That  is  his 
world,  and  he  will  have  no  other.  Like  dis- 
proportion cannot  be  fairly  predicated  of  man 
if  he  knows  his  capabilities  and  exercises  his 
highest  powers.  If  not,  he  will  only  build  man- 
hills  in  place  of  ant-hills. 

For  the   Swiss   ant   there   is  practically  as 


THE  GREAT  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  SOLUTION.   67 

great  a  disproportion  between  ten  or  fifteen 
thousand  feet  of  massive  Alpine  altitude,  and 
his  three  or  four  feet  of  earth-mound,  as  there 
is  between  man  and  the  Almighty  Being.  The 
difference  is  not  one  of  material  measurement, 
but  of  conceiving  faculty.  Endow  the  ant  with 
man's  mind,  and  the  insect  would  have  his  own 
theories  and  speculations,  his  mountainologies, 
warm  controversies  with  his  fellow  insects,  his 
disputes  respecting  the  possibility  of  knowing 
anything  of  the  Jungfrau  or  the  Monch,  his  in- 
credulities, and  even  his  assertions  that  there 
were  no  such  mountains  ;  particularly  when  they 
were  utterly  hidden  by  mists  and  invisible  for 
many  days.  He  would  say  to  some  other  in- 
quiring ant — '*  There  may  or  there  may  not  be 
a  Jungfrau.  If  there  be,  it  is  unknowable,  and 
no  conceptions  of  ours  can  be  adequate  to  it. 
Its  very  existence  is  a  needless  and  disturbing 
hypothesis,  bewildering  us  in  our  serenity,  dis- 
tracting us  in  our  industry.  Build  up  ant-hills 
not  figments.  While  you  are  abstractedly  spe- 
culating about  the  Jungfrau,  winter  is  before  us, 
storms  are  upon  us,  and  the  rains  are  washing 
us  down.  Leave  the  Jungfrau  to  itself;  it  is 
infinite,  immeasurable,  unknowable.  Our  busi- 
ness  is   structural,    our  science  is   sociology, 

5A 


THE  GREAT  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  SOLUTION. 


our  burdens  are  heavy  enough  for  us,  and  our  j 

duties  are  plain  enough.'^  j 

The  application  of  the  moral  to  ourselves  is  ap-  ; 

parent.  Let  us  not  be  deterred  by  disproportion  ;  | 

let  us  not  say  there  is  no  God  because  he  is  not  j 

seen  by  us,  because  clouds  and  darkness  are  \ 
round  about  him;    and  because  we  have  our 

little  earth-homes  to  build,  let  us  not  say  ''to  \ 

erect  them  is  enough  for  us  ;  though  the  vast  ^ 

mountain  may  really  exist,  we  cannot  ascend  it;  j 
we  cannot  measure  it ;  it  is  too  high  for  us,  we 
cannot  attain  to  it.     Sufficient  for  us  is  the  evil 
and  misery  beneath  our  little  terrestrial  dome. 

All  we  can  do  is  to  try  and  diminish  that.     No-  \ 
thing  else  really  concerns  us  in  our  short  life ; 
while  we  are  speculating  on  Alps,  a  ruthless 

tyrant  may  pass  by  and  overturn  our  life-labour  i 

and   scatter   our   provisions    and    destroy  our  I 

hopes."     Were  we  but  ants,  we  might  say  all  ■ 

this  and  be  justified  ;  since  we  are  men  we  dare  j 

not,  unless  we  deny  our  superiority,  abdicate  ! 
our  rights,  and  deny  our  responsibilities. 

But  while  these  ant-hills  are  before  us,  we  ; 

may  by  an  appeal  to  them    opportunely  test  ; 

some   current  modes  of  reasoning.      Are  not  • 

these  things  remarkable  instances  of  instinct,  , 

contrivance,  and  purpose  ?     Are  they  not  most  i 


THE  GREAT  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  SOLUTION.  69 

evident  proofs  of  adaptation  of  means  to  an 
end,  of  forethought  and  prevision  elaborated 
into  perfected  results?  Examine  these  struc- 
tures, observe  the  labourers  individually  and 
collectively  conspiring  to  one  predestined  aim, 
and  working  out  particle  by  particle  the  ori- 
ginal conception,  and  tell  me  if  you  know  any 
more  striking  examples  of  what  we  term  de- 
sign ?  ''Not  at  all,"  replies  an  objector,  "there 
is  no  proof  of  design  here;  these  are  simply 
fortuitous  concourses  of  atoms ;  they  are  earth 
mounds  and  nothing  more.  What  you  call 
design  is  an  idea  of  your  own  which  you  bring 
to  the  ant-hills,  but  which  never  entered  into 
the  thoughts  of  the  ants.  It  is  your  conception, 
not  theirs ;  they  worked  out  not  a  plan,  they 
accomplished  not  a  purpose,  but  each  insect 
brought  his  particle  and  left  it,  and  the  whole 
is  anything  but  the  result  of  combined  fore- 
thought and  determination.  Before  you  can 
prove  that  each  hill  is  a  consequence  of  design 
in  the  ants,  you  must  know  their  minds,  fathom 
their  views,  and  determine  their  nature.  You 
cannot  aftirm  that  here  we  have  the  effects  of  a 
cause ;  plainly  we  have  nothing  here  but  the 
sequences  of  a  series,  the  aggregation  of  a 
number  of  particles,  not  one  of  which  exercised 


70    THE  GREAT  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  SOLUTION. 

any  causative  influence  upon  another.  We 
have  merely  a  congeries  of  little  lumps,  and 
what  you  see  besides  is  the  mere  product  of 
your  fancy.  If  the  ants  wrought  from  design, 
why  did  they  heap  up  so  much  earth,  when  far 
less  would  have  sufficed  ?  if  they  had  a  definite 
purpose,  why  did  they  add  so  many  superfluous 
little  chambers,  and  why  did  they  erect  so  many 
shapeless  protuberances  which  serve  to  no  ad- 
vantage, and  which  are  actually  mere  abor- 
tions on  the  principal  mound  ? 

Perhaps  you  rejoin,  *'Well,  but  there  are 
many  ant-hills  within  our  view  at  this  spot — 
they  all  appear  to  be  constructed  upon  a  simi- 
lar principle,  and  they  all  serve  a  similar  pur- 
pose, so  that  all  the  builders  must  have  been 
animated  with  similar  ideas  and  therefore  all 
must  have  worked  to  a  preconcerted  plan." 
*'  Far  from  it,"  replies  again  the  objector,  ''  what 
you  call  a  preconcerted  plan  is  another  imagi- 
nation of  yours,  answering  to  no  reality  in  the 
ant  mind.  The  multiplication  is  merely  one  of 
congeries,  a  simple  aggregate  of  aggregates. 
They  happen  to  be  somewhat  alike,  but  any 
intended  likeness  exists  only  in  your  view,  for 
you  cannot  suppose  that  these  poor  insects 
built  up  worlds  like  a  human  architect.     By  an 


THE  GREAT  PROBLEM  AND  ITS  SOLUTION,  71 

illusion  of  your  own,  you  are  anthropothor- 
phising  the  ants,  who  only  acted  upon  impulses 
selection  in  choosing-  the  best  atoms.  Not  in 
any  one,  not  in  the  whole  number  of  mounds 
can  you  distinctly  trace  a  single  instance  of  de- 
sign or  contrivance  or  preconcerted  purpose. 
They  are  at  best  nothing  more  than  parts  of 
the  great  natural  evolution  of  all  things,  in- 
cluding ourselves." 

Such  is  a  fanciful  but  faithful  application  of 
some  of  the  current  objections  to  one  of  the 
soundest,  most  available,  and  most  generally 
intelligible  of  all  arguments,  by  means  of  which 
we  obtain  aids  in  forming  a  conception  of  the 
existence  and  action  of  the  Omnipotent  One  in 
that  world  in  which  He  has  placed  us.  It  will 
be  desirable  to  examine  more  directly  and  more 
strictly  some  of  the  objections  by  the  supposed 
force  of  which  it  is  sought  to  overthrow  this 
great  argument  altogether,  and  to  cast  it  aside 
as  weak  and  worthless. 


72  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 


VI. 

THE    ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN— ITS 
GENERAL  SCOPE, 

'T^HE  object  of  the  Argument  from  Design 
-^  may  be  thus  succinctly  stated.  It  is  in- 
tended to  lead  us  to  the  belief  that  there  exists 
a  Maker  and  Sustainer  of  all  that  we  behold  in 
existence,  of  all  that  by  the  teachings  of  Nature 
we  fairly  suppose  to  have  existed  in  former 
ages  upon  our  earth,  of  all  that  may  in  future 
exist  upon  it,  and,  as  an  ulterior  inference,  of 
all  that  may  at  present  exist  or  in  future  enter 
into  existence  in  the  Universe.  Such  is  its 
most  comprehensive  bearing  and  aim. 

Accepting  and  acknowledging  the  full  force 
of  this  Argument,  then  He  who  has  designed 
and  is  sustaining  the  entirety,  is  so  doing  for 
ends  and  purposes,  a  part  of  which  we  can 
ascertain  and  comprehend,  but  the  far  larger 
part  of  which  we  cannot  now  ascertain  or  com- 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  73 

prehend.  In  accordance  with  a  kind  of  rea- 
soning which  commends  itself  to  the  majority 
of  enlightened  minds,  we  are  impelled  to  infer  a 
designer  from  manifold  evidences  of  design. 
Any  one  example  in  creation  would  conduct  us 
to  this  conclusion,  while  the  more  numerous, 
the  more  clearly  understood,  and  the  better 
classified  are  the  examples,  the  more  distinct 
and  the  more  impressive  will  be  our  confidence 
in  the  validity  of  the  argument.  Feeling  that 
we  now  live  in  circumstances  and  under  con- 
ditions by  which  our  minds  are  defrauded  by 
distractions  of  the  full  effect  of  the  wonder- 
ful exhibitions  of  the  skill  and  wisdom  of  the 
Designer,  the  multiplication  of  the  evidences 
strengthens  and  deepens  the  conclusions  we 
should  otherwise  draw  from  one  or  a  few  of 
them.  Therefore,  the  original  and  simple 
argument  requires  and  acquires  corroboration 
by  repetition  and  additional  illustrations.  Hence 
the  value  of  a  whole  body  of  Natural  Theology, 
hence  the  importance  of  frequently  reconsider- 
ing the  basis  of  our  reasoning,  and  hence,  too, 
the  necessity  of  addressing  ourselves  to  the 
new  or  rehabilitated  objections  which  from  time 
to  time  are  brought  against  the  efficacy  of  this 
argument. 


74  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

Students  of  ancient  literature  are  well  aware 
that  the  Argument  from  Design  has  been  urged 
as  well  as  combated  from  an  early  period.  The 
Stoics  maintained  the  doctrine  of  final  causes 
with  zeal ;  and  we  read  in  Cicero  {De  Natura 
Deortcm,  ii.,  150)  how  the  Stoic  Balbus  defended 
them.  Aristotle  {de  part,  a7iimal.  iv.,  10)  offers 
a  long  and  powerful  statement  in  favour  of 
final  causes,  though  he  thinks  that  the  order 
and  regularity  of  astronomical  phenomena  more 
decidedly  imply  the  action  of  a  final  cause  than 
the  irregular  and  capricious  phenomena  of  the 
organic  world.  In  the  same  treatise  Aristotle 
regards  the  tools  made  by  man  as  proving  that 
the  tools  made  by  Nature  had  the  same  end  in 
view,  the  hand  being  an  organ  before  organs, 
and  the  whole  body  and  its  parts  being  framed 
for  the  functions  they  perform,  as  the  saw  is 
made  for  the  sake  of  sawing ;  the  sawing  is  not 
done  for  the  sake  of  the  saw. 

The  opposite  opinions  are  also  strongly  con- 
tended for  by  some,  and  especially  by  Lucre- 
tius, who  thus  exhorts  his  readers  in  the  fourth 
book  of  his  poem  : — 

"  Illud  in  his  rebus  vitiam  vementer  avessis 
Effugere,  errorem  vitareque  prametuenter, 
Lumina  nc  facias  oculorum  clara  creata, 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  JS 

Prospicere  ut  possemus,  et  ut  proferre  queamus 
Proceros  passus,  ideo  fastigia  posse 
Surarum  ac  feminum  pedibus  fundata  plicari, 
Brachia  turn  porro  validis  ex  apta  lacertis 
Esse  manusque  datas  iitraque  ex  parte  ministras, 
Ut  facere  ad  vitam  possemus  quas  foret  usus. 
Cetera  de  genere  hoc  inter  qucecunque  pretantur 
Omnia  perversa  prcepostera  sunt  ratione, 
Nil  ideo  quoniam  natum'st  in  corpore  ut  uti 
Possemus,  sed  quod  natum'st  id  procreat  usum/* 

*'  And  herein  you  should  desire  with  all  your 
might  to  shun  the  weakness,  with  a  lively  ap- 
prehension to  avoid  the  mistake  of  supposing 
that  the  bright  lights  of  the  eyes  were  made  in 
order  that  we  might  see ;  and  that  the  tapering 
ends  of  the  shanks  and  hams  are  attached  to 
the  feet  as  a  base  in  order  to  enable  us  to  step 
out  with  long  strides ;  or,  again,  that  the  fore- 
arms were  slung  to  the  stout  upper-arms,  and 
ministering  hands  given  us  on  each  side,  that 
we  might  be  able  to  discharge  the  needful 
duties  of  life.  Other  explanations  of  like  sort 
which  men  give,  one  and  all,  put  effect  for 
cause,  through  wrong-headed  reasoning ;  since 
nothing  was  born  in  the  body  that  we  might 
use  it,  but  that  which  is  born  begets  for  itself  a 
use."  * 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  Roman  poet  should 

*  Munro's  Lucretius. 


76  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

have  anticipated  in  this  passage  the  kind  of 
philosophy  now  in  favour  with  certain  natural- 
ists and  others,  and  that  the  same  objections 
against  purpose  should  be  now  revived  as  were 
propounded  by  the  heathen  writer. 

Many  very  singular  correspondences  between 
old  unbelief  and  what  is  supposed  to  be  new, 
might  be  indicated  in  the  clever  but  pernicious 
poem  of  Lucretius. 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  yy 


Vil. 

TEE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.— ITS   VA- 
LIDITY AND  LIMITATION, 

^  I  ^HE  illustrative  supposition  with  which 
-^  Paley  commences  his  treatise  on  Natural 
Theology  is  well  known  to  all  interested  in  the 
subject,  and  need  not  be  quoted  at  length.  It 
is  in  brief  this :  the  casual  finder  of  a  watch 
upon  the  ground  would  inquire  how  the  watch 
happened  to  be  in  that  place.  It  could  not 
have  been  there  for  ever  and  without  reason, 
for  its  several  parts  are  framed  and  put  together 
for  a  purpose  ;  they  are  so  formed  and  adjusted 
as  to  produce  motion,  and  that  motion  so  regu- 
lated as  to  point  out  the  time  of  the  day.  If 
the  different  parts  had  been  differently  shaped 
from  what  they  are,  of  a  different  size  from 
what  they  are,  or  placed  after  any  other  manner, 
or  in  any  other  order  than  that  which  they  are 
really  placed,  either  no  motion  at  all  would 


78  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

have  been  discovered  in  the  machine,  or  none 
v^hich  would  have  answered  the  use  now  served 
by  it.  Paley  pursues  the  argument  with  per- 
spicacity and  cogency,  and  if  he  were  more 
extensively  read,  it  would  be  seen  that  he  has 
many  merits  beyond  those  allowed  to  him  by 
many  philosophers  of  the  present  day,  and  that 
his  argument  is  not  refutable,  even  though  it 
may  be  disparaged. 

When  for  instance,  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer 
cites  this  supposition  of  Paley' s  and  endeavours 
to  discredit  it  by  imagining  a  reversal  of  the 
conditions,  so  that  instead  of  the  human  finder  of 
the  watch  speculating  upon  its  maker,  the  watch 
itself  should  become  intelligent  and  for  itself 
reason  about  its  maker,  and  so  reason  as  to 
arrive  at  the  false  conclusion  that  its  maker  was 
a  being  like  itself,  and  subject  to  the  necessity 
of  being  provided  with  springs,  escapements, 
and  cog-wheels ;  he  grossly  misrepresents  the 
result,  for  in  such  a  case  the  watch  would 
reason  not  wrongly  but  rightly  according  to  the 
measure  of  its  intelligence,  that  is,  it  would 
conceive  of  its  maker  only  in  watch-terms.  To 
suppose,  however,  that  man's  whole  reasoning 
about  God  from  nature  is  as  limited  as  would  be  ^ 
that  of  the  intelligentwatch,  is  a  palpable  absurd- 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  79 

ity.  Man  well  knows  that  when  he  has  reached 
the  conception  of  a  great  designer,  he  has  not 
reached  the  ultimate  conception  of  God,  but 
only  one  which  lies  midway  between  himself 
and  the  Infinite  Being.  It  is  true  and  trust- 
worthy enough  for  a  mediate  position,  but  un- 
suitable beyond  it.  Man  is  possessed  of  supra- 
mechanical  faculties,  and  exercises  them  in  the 
whole  range  of  inductive  reasoning.  He  reasons 
onward  and  upward,  and  in  the  case  supposed, 
he  is  well  aware  that  the  conception  he  may 
derive  from  the  watch  of  its  maker  is  merely  a 
first  and  imperfect  conception  of  the  perfection 
of  the  Almighty  Maker.  It  is  simply  interme- 
diate between  man  and  God,  and  is  by  no  means 
final,  but  elementary  and  suggestive  of  infinitely 
more  than  is  comprised  in  itself. 

This  supposed  reversal  of  the  conditions  of 
the  watch  and  its  human  finder,  is  merely  a 
fruit  of  David  Hume's  old  subtle  argument 
against  reasoning  from  the  appearances  and 
operations  of  nature  to  the  existence  of  an  in- 
telligent cause.  By  him  it  is  adroitly  and  speci- 
ously argued  that  in  reasoning  about  an  agent  or 
being  wholly  unlike  all  we  have  hitherto  known, 
our  inferences  must  be  strictly  confined  to  the 
facts   whence   they    are    drawn.       Ascending 


8o  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 


from  the  works  of  nature  to  their  cause,  we  are 
entitled  to  conclude  that  a  Being  exists  who 
created  them  as  we  see  them,  and  therefore  that 
this  Being  is  possessed  of  sufficient  skill  and 
power  to  contrive  and  execute  those  precise  works 
and  no  other  or  no  more,  hence  it  follows  that 
a  finite,  but  not  that  an  infinite  and  all  power- 
ful Being  exists.  This  line  of  argument  has 
been  repeated  and  varied,  and  is  sometimes  at 
present  appealed  to  as  an  insuperable  bar  to  the 
foundation  of  Natural  Theology. 

It  is,  however,  capable  of  a  satisfactory  refu- 
tation, as  Lord  Brougham  has  briefly  shown,* 
and  as  might  be  more  largely  shown,  if  it  could 
really  deceive  any  sound  reasoner ;  who  would 
however  clearly  see,  as  Lord  Brougham  ob- 
serves that  '*  according  to  this  argument,  all 
experimental  knowledge  must  stand  still,  gene- 
ralizing be  at  an  end,  and  philosophers  be 
content  never  to  take  a  single  step,  or  draw  one 
conclusion  beyond  the  mere  facts  observed  by 
them ;  in  a  word,  Inductive  Science  must  be 
turned  from  a  process  of  general  reasoning 
upon  particular  facts,  into  a  bare  dry  record  of 
those  particular  facts  themselves." 

Hence  to  charge  Natural  Theologians  with 

*  "  Discourse  on  Natural  Theology,"  Preface  to  Paley,  Note. 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN,  8i 

presumption  because  they  reason  in  this  manner, 
and  to  affirm  that  all  such  ideas  of  the  Un- 
knowable One  must  be  false  and  misleading,  is 
both  unfair  and  illogical.  Thus  in  fact  the  op- 
ponents of  all  Natural  Theology  as  impossible 
and  unprofitable,  proceed  upon  assumptions 
which  may  be  shown  to  be  untenable  and 
baseless. 

Reflect  upon  the  continually  repeated 
charge  which  they  urge  against  us  of  anthro- 
pomorphism— of  conceiving  and  representing 
the  Creator  under  human  figures  and  limit- 
ations, and  as  impelled  by  human  motives  and 
adopting  human  forms  of  procedure.  Our 
opponents  allege  that  so  long  as  we  judge  of 
the  Divine  Mind  by  human  standards,  so  long 
as  we  liken  His  aims  and  ends  to  ours,  we  make 
a  science  of  Natural  Theology  impossible  or 
absurd  ;  that  we  thus  reduce  God  to  man,  and 
nullify  the  whole  force  of  our  arguments. 
Frequently  as  this  charge  is  renewed,  and 
specious  as  it  seems,  we  think  it  will  be  found 
to  be  in  a  great  measure  unfounded  and  unphi- 
losophical.  For  if  we  are  not  to  judge  by  such 
tests  as  we  can  apply,  if  we  are  not  to  employ 
our  reason  in  the  only  direction  in  which  we 
can  exercise  it,  all  reasoning  upon  this  subject 

6 


82  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN, 

is  impracticable,  and  we  must  be  content  to 
confess  that  our  faculties  have  been  given  to  us 
in  vain.  Admitting  that  in  older  books  and 
amongst  contracted  thinkers  anthropomorphism 
has  been  carried  too  far,  still  the  only  way  in 
which  we  can  regard  the  Creator  at  all  is  in  the 
manner  in  which  our  powers  apprehend  him 
naturally  and  readily.  He  has  chosen  to  reveal 
Himself  to  us  under  various  human  representa- 
ions,  as  for  example  a  King,  a  Ruler,  a  Guide, 
a  Father,  a  Provider,  a  Director,  and  Friend. 
These  and  all  similar  terms  are  simply  human, 
and  embody  various  human  relationships.  But 
they  are  the  only  relationships  we  can  in  our 
present  state  recognize,  and  the  only  relation- 
ships which  can  call  forth  responsive  affections 
and  obedience  in  all.  No  thinker  is  deceived 
or  deluded  by  them,  because  he  knows  that 
they  are  merely  representative  symbols  of 
higher  truth,  and  are  simply  tuitional  indica- 
tions of  future  and  clearer  revelations. 

We  must  necessarily  think  of  the  Divine 
Nature  as  the  Divine  Being  has  qualified  us  to 
conceive  of  it.  To  attempt  anything  more  is 
to  lose  the  substance  and  grasp  at  a  shadow. 
*'That  the  true  conception,"  says  Dean  Mansel, 
*'  of  the  Divine  Nature,  so  far  as  we  are  able  to 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  83 

receive  it,  is  to  be  found  in  those  regulative  re- 
presentations which  exhibit  God  under  limita- 
tions accommodated  to  the  constitution  of  man, 
not  in  the  unmeaning  abstractions,  which  aiming 
at  a  higher  knowledge,  distort  rather  than  ex- 
hibit, the  Absolute  and  Infinite,  is  a  conclusion 
warranted  both  deductively,  from  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  limits  of  human  thought,  and  induc- 
tively, by  what  we  can  gather  from  experience 
and  analogy,  concerning  God's  general  dealings 
with  mankind." 

It  seems  to  be  overlooked  that  our  highest 
imaginations,  our  noblest  poetry,  our  most 
soaring  conceptions  of  ideal  activities  are  ne- 
cessarily anthropomorphical.  The  ideal  man  or 
the  ideal  wovian  is  the  utmost  achievement  of 
Art  and  Song.  Neither  Raphael,  nor  Michael 
Angelo,  nor  Dante,  nor  Milton  nor  Shakespeare, 
could  transcend  humanity.  All  creative  genius 
culminates  inhumanity.  All  sanctified  emotion 
is  circumscribed  by  humanity.  The  mind 
cannot  go  beyond  it,  for  it  is  the  type  of  visible 
perfection.  We  see  nothing  better  than  the 
best  man,  we  aim  at  nothing  higher  than  the 
most  cultivated  humanity. 

To  charge  Natural  Theologians,  therefore, 
with  anthropomorphism  when  they  infer  purpose 


84  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN, 

and  design  in  Nature  in  accordance  with  human 
judgments,  is  simply  to  charge  them  with  the 
limitations  and  imperfections  of  the  faculties 
with  which  it  has  pleased  the  Creator  to  endow 
them.  To  demand  of  them  that  they  shall 
judge  by  a  higher  standard,  is  simply  to  demand 
an  impossibility.  To  affirm  that  inasmuch  as 
they  cannot  judge  by  a  higher  standard  they 
cannot  judge  rightly,  is  clearly  a  denial  of 
the  power  of  judging  logically  at  all. 

By  an  extension  of  this  line  of  thought  it 
might  readily  be  shown  that  all  our  reasoning 
is  anthropomorphical,  in  the  daily  emergencies 
and  actions  of  civilized  life,  in  the  ultimate 
issues  and  awards  of  all  our  dealings  and  doings, 
in  our  estimates  of  the  results  and  fruits  of  in- 
dividual existence.  Remove  all  anthropomor- 
phism from  our  conceptions  of  the  Divine 
Being,  denude  all  creation  of  what  wears  the 
semblance  of  human  aims  and  purposes  of  the 
purest  and  noblest  order,  and  we  arrive  only 
at  the  intangible  and  inscrutable  Absolute. 

To  those  who  have  reflected  most  profoundly 
on  the  various  phases  which  the  argument  of 
design  may  assume,  it  has  probably  occurred 
that  the  true  solution  of  the  difficulties  which 
environ  this  subject  is  a  scries  and  succession  of 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  85 

purposes  of  which  we  are  at  present  only  per- 
mitted to  discern  a  part,  and  perhaps  the  first 
portion.     Probably  the  vast  scheme  of  visible 
things   includes   a  progressive   series   of  ends 
of  which  every  intelligent  and  reverent  mind 
conjectures  a  small  portion,  but  of  which  no 
created    spirit  can    grasp    the    ultimate    issue. 
Each  end  or  purpose  may  be  in  itself  definite 
as  far  as  humanly  appreciable,  but  higher  ends 
and  purposes  would  transcend  our  faculties  and 
elude  our  comprehension.     On  the  surface  of 
the  immense  expanse  of  nature  we  behold  an 
initiative  circle,  and  even  while  we  gaze,  this 
circle  slowly  widens  and  includes  greater  space, 
and  gives  birth  to  other  and  larger  circles,  and 
these    again   widen    and   comprehend    larger 
space ;  but  human  life  fails  to  endure  beyond 
the  period  when  one  great  circle  is  observed, 
and  terminates  long  before  the  original  impulse 
exhausts  itself,  and  the    broad   expanse  again 
becomes  quiescent.     Nevertheless  every  circle 
has  been  in  itself  complete,  and  has  embraced 
a  defined  space,  and   for  the  time  has  been 
bounded   by   a   distinct    circumference.      The 
entire  amplitude  is  coeval  only  with  Immortality 
and  coextensive  with  Eternity. 

To  obtain  clear  ideas  of  the  true  meanings 


86  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

and  relations  of  the  terms  employed  in  argu- 
ment respecting  Cause,  Design,  Means,  Adap- 
tation, and  End,  let  them  be  formally  defined, 
and  they  cannot  be  defined  more  clearly  and 
succinctly  than  in  this  abstract  from  the  recent 
and  truly  philosophical  work  of  Dr.  Noah 
Porter,  entitled  "the  Human  Intellect." 

Aristotle  and  the  schoolmen  divided  all  pos- 
sible and  conceivable  causes  into  these  four : — 
the  material^  the  /onnal,  the  efficiait,  and  the 
fijial.  The  efficient  corresponds  with  the  cause 
of  modern  philosophy,  though  the  latter  is  ex- 
tended to  ^// those  agents  which,  in  combination, 
originate  a  given  effect. 

T\iQ  final  cause  was  and  is  the  design  or  end 
conceived  of  as  impelling  and  directing  the 
action  of  a  number  or  succession  of  agencies,  till 
it  was  actually  brought  to  pass.  For  example, 
the  man  who  proposes  to  construct  a  great 
edifice,  will  realize  his  end  when  after  a  series 
of  actions  and  exertions  the  edifice  is  really 
built.  Hence  by  a  secondary  signification  the 
end  comes  to  signify  a  purposed  result  or  a 
design,  and  the  phrase yf;;^/  cause  suggests  the 
same  idea.  The  purpose  is  a  cause  because 
when  formed  it  is  conceived  as  prompting  or 
causing  the  events,  which  are  necessary  to  its 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN,  87 


realization.  Hence  we  regard  a  final  cause  as 
that  which  from  its  commencement  as  a  thought 
or  plan  is  at  length  wrought  into  a  fact  as  an 
end  or  final  result. 

The  design  conceived  of  as  directing  or  im- 
pelling a  series  of  agents  to  an  end,  supposes 
that  agencies  do  or  may  exist  which  are  capable 
of  bringing  it  to  pass.  The  capacity  of  these 
efficient  causes  when  combined  to  produce  the 
effect,  is  called  their  adaptation  or  fitness  for  it. 
Supposing  the  question  to  arise,  by  what  causes 
or  agencies  can  it  be  effected  in  the  best  and 
readiest  manner,  the  answer  is  given  by  showing 
that  the  agencies  selected  will  really  bring  it  to 
pass.  A  series  or  combination  of  causes, 
viewed  as  fitted  to  an  end,  is  called  the  means, 
and  these  form  the  intermediate  agencies 
between  the  end  as  thought  and  the  end  as 
produced.  Their  relation  to  the  latter  is  adap- 
tation. 

Every  one  will  admit  that  the  relation  of 
design  and  the  means  of  its  execution  often 
exist  and  may  be  clearly  traced  in  both  spiritual 
and  material  phenomena.  '''  The  point  which 
we,"  says  Dr.  Porter,  ''assert  and  defend  is 
that  this  relation  is  believed  d  priori  to  per- 
vade a/l  existence,  and  must   be  assumed  as  the 


88  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

ground  of  the  scientific  explanation  of  the  facts  and 
phenomena  of  the  tmiverse.  We  do  not  inquire 
whether  it  is  observed  in  our  experience  as  a 
psychological  fact,  but  whether  it  lies  at  the 
ground  of  all  our  knowledge  as  a  necessary  rela- 
tion of  things,  and  a  first  p^^inciple  or  axiom  of 
thought — whether,  in  other  words,  the  principle 
of  adaptation  ranks  with  the  principle  of  efficient 
causation  as  a  necessary  and  a  priori  truth  I''' 

The  above  appears  to  be  a  concise  and  correct 
statement  of  terms,  conditions,  and  relations, 
without  which  we  cannot  reason  at  all  as  to  the 
world  around  us  or  any  part  of  it.  Whether 
the  subject  be  an  ant-hill,  or  a  world,  or  the 
universe,  we  can  only  proceed  to  argue  upon 
some  such  principles  ;  for  failing  these,  we  must 
relinquish  reasoning  and  research  in  the  higher 
regions  of  thought,  and  subside  into  narrow 
positivism. 

We  find  it  to  be  inherent  in  the  construction 
of  our  minds  that  we  should  draw  conclusions 
respecting  the  existence  and  action  of  a  de- 
signer whenever  we  behold  arrangement,  order, 
structure,  and  fulfilment  of  ascertained  purposes. 
Whether  we  inspect  the  works  of  a  watch  or  the 
parts  and  performance  of  a  curious  machine, 
the  order  of  the  physical  or  the  functions  of  the 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  89 

organic  world,  our  mental  inference  is  the  same 
and  indeed  unavoidable.  The  conclusion  is  the 
stronger  as  the  work  scrutinized  is  complex ; 
our  estimate  of  the  skill  and  power  of  the  de- 
signer is  proportioned  to  his  display  of  them 
in  his  work.  Not  more  indissolubly  is  one  part 
of  a  machine  linked  to  another  than  our  conclu- 
sion is  linked  to  the  visible  work,  and  when  a 
particular  machine  manifests  manifold  and  ex- 
traordinary adaptations  to  its  purpose,  our 
mental  conviction  that  it  had  a  designer  rises 
into  admiration  of  his  superior  ability,  in  addi- 
tion to  its  certain  exercise.  If  he  has  achieved 
a  triumph  of  mechanism  beyond  his  predeces- 
sors, by  so  much  do  we  esteem  him  as  superior 
to  them.  Carry  this  esteem  to  its  highest  degree, 
and  if  the  work  appear  to  exceed  man's  utmost 
known  ability,  we  should  necessarily  conclude 
that  the  designer  must  be  superhuman.  If 
from  its  vast  dimensions,  its  extreme  complexity, 
its  unerring  perfection,  and  its  unfailing  and 
perpetual  performance  of  one  or  more  premedi- 
tated purposes,  it  overcomes  all  conceivable 
difficulties,  the  mind  of  man  could  not  without 
violence  resist  the  inference  that  some  power 
far  above  itself  had  determined  and  wrought  out 
the  plan.     Thus  our  mind  would  make  an  ap- 


90  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

proach  to  a  supreme  spiritual  being,  to  a  being- 
unfettered  and  unconditioned  by  its  own  limita- 
tions. The  mind  would  approach  /^z£^^r<^^  a  Divine 
Artificer,  even  if  it  fell  far  short  of  arriving  at 
an  adequate  conception  of  Omnipotence. 

Toivards  a  Supreme  Artificer,  we  say,  and  not 
to  him  ;  that  is  so  far  towards  him  as  the  argu- 
ment founded  upon  the  evidence  of  his  work  is 
qualified  to  lead  us.  This  is  the  first  great  and 
well  founded  act  of  upward  progress  to  which 
Nature  helps  us.  We  may  approach  to  the 
Divine  Being  more  directly  by  other  and  more 
speedy  modes,  but  these  lie  beyond  the  province 
of  logical  reasoning,  which  alone  for  the  present 
concerns  us.  And  if  we  keep  steadily  in  view 
the  steps  here  enumerated,  we  shall  not  fail  to 
advance  surely  though  laboriously,  nor  shall  we 
be  bewildered  by  the  sophistry  of  those  who 
deny  the  validity  of  the  argument.  Opponents 
have  striven  to  weaken  it  by  forcing  on  our  at- 
tention the  idea  of  sequence,  and  by  excluding 
causation,  forethought,  prevision,  and  provision, 
and  in  short  all  that  embraces  the  choice,  adop- 
tion, and  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end.  Un- 
deniably, however,  there  do  exist  plainly  before 
us  the  facts  of  co-existence,  of  coincidence,  and 
of  concurrence  of  means  or  forces,  which  accom- 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  91 

plish  a  visible  result.  Where  are  we  to  place 
all  these  ?  They  must  be  considered  as  terms 
of  the  physical  analysis,  they  must  be  accounted 
for  at  the  end  if  not  at  the  beginning-. 

In  this  strain  the  writer  of  an  elaborate  ar- 
ticle in  one  of  our  Reviews  has  also  reasoned 
on  the  same  topic,  and  I  here  cite  an  illustra- 
tive passage. 

*'  If  by  the  construction  of  our  minds  we  are 
compelled  to  construe  actual  machinery  which 
effects  an  end  as  designed  to  that  end,  that 
compulsion  is  our  justification.  No  insoluble 
question  outside  of  this  act  of  construction  can 
interfere  with  or  invalidate  this  act  itself.  If 
Descartes  then  or  any  one  else  objects  to  us 
that  we  must  know  the  Divine  mind  before  we 
can  affix  design  to  Nature,  we  reply  it  is  falsely 
put — we  need  not  know  God  in  order  to  put  a 
construction  upon  facts ;  we  can  put  a  con- 
struction upon  facts  if  we  have  the  facts.  We 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  speculative  argu- 
ment at  the  other  end  of  the  question  ;  we 
argue  from  this  end  of  it,  from  the  facts  of  con- 
trivance ;  design  is  tied  to  those  facts  and  can- 
not be  divorced  from  them.  If  we  cannot  areue 
indeed  np  to  a  God  till  we  can  argue  dowii 
from  Him,  if  we  cannot  interpret  any  signs  that 


92  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

point  to  Him,  till  we  know  they  come  from 
Him,  then  certainly  the  evidences  of  a  God 
from  Nature  are  impossible  until  they  are  use- 
less, and  there  is  no  such  argument  as  the 
Argument  of  Design.  But  this  is  not  the  state 
of  the  case.  You  mistake  our  argument ;  we 
assume  no  knowledge  of  the  Divine  designing 
mind  ;  we  only  argue  from  facts  towards  one. 
Whatever  be  the  mystery  which  lies  on  the 
other  side  of  the  ocean  of  infinity,  it  is  consis- 
tent with  those  facts,  and  with  the  constitution 
of  our  own  minds  which  obliges  this  construc- 
tion of  them."* 

It  is  remarkable  that  some  of  the  very  natu- 
ralists who  have  either  disregarded  or  openly 
denied  design  in  nature,  have  themselves  by 
facts  confirmed  it.  Even  Mr.  Darwin  is  one 
of  its  most  recent  exponents  in  his  book  upon 
the  "  Fertilization  of  Orchids  through  Insect 
Agency."  The  numerous  particular  instances  • 
of  contrivance  and  prevision  or  adaptation 
which  he  there  displays  are  not  only  inte- 
resting in  themselves  but  constitute  manifold 
and  wonderful  evidences  of  the  doctrine  of 
design.  This  volume  would  form  an  appropriate 
addition  to  Paley's  Natural  Theology.      Any 

*  Quarterly  Review^  No.  253. 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  93 

reader  of  it  must  rise  from  its  perusal  more  than 
ever  convinced  in  the  truth  of  desio^n  in  Nature. 
Mr.  Darwin  indeed  stops  at  adaptation,  and  at 
the  proof  he  gives  of  purpose  in  the  *'FertiHza- 
tion  of  Orchids."  Others,  however,  need  not  do 
this,  but  may  continue  and  connect  this  special 
evidence  with  the  great  body  of  general  evi- 
dence all  tending  towards  the  Divine  Designer. 
It  appears  indeed  impossible  to  escape  from 
the  presence  of  evidences  of  design  in  any 
held  of  natural  research,  and  this  important 
argument  gathers  strength  every  day,  and 
from  every  department  of  Nature.  Design  is 
in  fact  Nature's  index-hand,  ever  pointing  to 
the  Divine  Designer.  We  have  not  to  invent 
or  imagine  the  doctrine,  our  only  effort  will  be  to 
avoid  it.  In  Derham's  and  Nieuwentyt's  and 
Paley's  hand  it  became  a  mighty  instrument 
well  wielded — in  our  day  it  is  still  mightier,  and 
might  be  wielded  with  far  greater  effect.  It  is 
one  of  the  first  lessons  taught  by  the  higher 
Ministry  of  Nature,  and  both  microscope  and 
telescope  equally  enlarge  our  knowledge  of  its 
meaning  and  application.  It  extends  from  the 
minutest  organism  visible  to  the  microscopist's 
scrutiny  even  to  the  greatest.  It  is  coextensive 
with  all  known  life,  and  may  fairly  be  supposed 


94  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

to  comprehend  all  which  is  as  yet  to  us  unknown. 
We  see  it  in  every  part  of  our  bodily  organiza- 
tion, and  in  every  function  of  every  member  is 
an  illustration  of  it.  We  see  it  in  other  bodies, 
and  the  language  and  reasoning  of  anatomy 
and  physiology  adopt  its  terms.  Our  principal 
inquiry  respecting  every  organ  is  what  is  its 
function,  and  how  is  it  formed  and  fitted  to 
perform  it? 

Teleology,  or  the  doctrine  of  final  causes, 
has  no  doubt  like  other  doctrines  been  subject 
to  abuse  and  misapplication;  but  incompetence 
or  license  in  its  applications  cannot  affect  its 
real  value.  The  termyf;^/  cause  is  not  perhaps 
fortunate,  and  may  occasionally  mislead,  for  as 
now  liberally  understood,  what  to  man  appears 
a  final  cause  is  not  assumed  to  be  the  ultimate 
final  cause  to  the  Omnipotent  One.  The  word 
Purpose  would  better  express  the  modern  view. 
But  as  respects  final  causes  in  the  other  accep- 
tance of  the  term.  Bacon's  reprehension  of 
them,  though  often  triumphantly  quoted  by 
opponents,  requires  to  be  explained.  "  The 
search  after  final  causes,"  says  Bacon,  "is 
barren,  for  like  virgins  consecrated  to  God, 
they  produce  nothing."  If,  however,  we  refer 
to    his    writings    [Advancement    of  Learning, 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  95 


book  ii,  p.  142J  we  find  him  adding,  *^not 
because  these  final  causes  are  not  true  and 
worthy  to  be  inquired,  being  kept  within  their 
own  province."  How  greatly  misconceived 
and  misapplied  the  former  part  of  the  sentence 
of  Bacon  has  been,  even  some  of  his  own  com- 
mentators have  noted.  In  Spedding's  noble 
edition  of  Bacon's  works  to  the  sentence  above 
cited,  which  in  the  original  is  "  Causarum 
Finalium  inquisitio  sterilis  est,  et  tanquam 
virgo  Deo  consecrata  nihil  parit,"  we  find 
the  following  judicious  note  of  explanation 
appended.  '*No  saying  of  Bacon's  has  been 
more  often  quoted  and  misunderstood  than 
this.  Carrying  out  his  division  of  the  Doctrina 
de  Naturd,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  depends 
upon  Aristotle's  quadripartite  classification  of 
causes,  he  remarks  that  to  Physica  corresponds 
Mechanica,  and  to  Metaphysica  Magia.  But 
Metaphysica  contains  two  parts,  the  doctrine  of 
forms  and  the  doctrine  of  final  causes.  Bacon 
remarks  that  Magia  corresponds  to  Meta- 
ph3^sica  inasmuch  as  the  latter  contains  the 
doctrine  of  forms,  that  of  final  causes  admit- 
ting from  its  nature  of  no  practical  applica- 
tions. "Nihil  parit"  means  simply  "  non 
parit  opera,"  which  though  it  would  have  been 


96  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

a  more  precise  mode  of  expression,  would  have 
destroyed  the  appositeness  of  his  illustration. 
No  one  who  fairly  considers  the  context,  can,  I 
think,  have  any  doubts  as  to  the  limitation  with 
which  the  sentence  in  question  is  to  be  taken. 
But  it  is  often  the  misfortune  of  a  pointed  say- 
ing to  be  quoted  apart  from  any  context,  and 
consequently  to  be  misunderstood." 

One  defect  in  our  popular  Natural  Theology 
has  been  its  unmethodical  and  partial  manner  of 
treating  certain  phenomena,  certain  structures 
or  provisions,  as  coming  more  directly  from  the 
Divine  hand  than  others,  and  the  directing 
of  attention  to  these  as  so  many  stronger  evi- 
dences of  His  working  than  those  which  are  un- 
mentioned.  But  this  defect  will  decrease  with 
the  enlargement  of  our  knowledge,  though  In- 
herent in  all  partial  expositions  by  man.  Could 
we  display  all  laws  or  provisional  arrangements 
as  parts  of  the  grand  totality  of  Nature  which  is 
in  itself,  and  consequently'In  all  its  parts,  the  re- 
sult of  the  Creator's  action,  the  argument  would 
acquire  irresistible  force ;  while  we  only  make 
use  of  instances,  and  portions,  and  of  divisions 
and  particulars  in  Nature  for  examination,  and 
for  an  exhibition  of  the  Divine  skill  or  goodness, 
we  shall  always  fail  to  attain  the  full  effect,  and 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN.  97 

the  impression  will  be  that  these  are  conspicu- 
ous and  exceptionally  striking,  more  special 
evidences  of  design  or  forethought,  or  good- 
ness, more  so  than  a  multitude  of  others 
which  we  either  do  not  know  or  do  not  enu- 
merate, forgetting  that  these  are  selected  as 
evidences  which  most  frequently  come  before 
us,  most  distinctly  appeal  to  us,  and  therefore 
most  directly  influence  us.  On  this  account  all 
such  titles  as  the  "  Wonders"  or  the  '*  Marvels 
of  Nature,"  or  the  ''  Footprints  ot  the  Cre- 
ator," are  inappropriate  and  misleading.  The 
whole  of  nature  may  be  called  marvellous, 
the  presence  of  God  is  universal,  and  His 
operations  are  coextensive  with  the  entire 
Cosmos.  We  are  apt  to  forget  these  truths 
when  we  attribute  any  one  single  force  or 
activity  of  matter,  any  one  grand  natural  phe- 
nomenon, or  any  particular  organization  to 
Him  as  His  spscific  work.  It  is  true  we  can 
only  contemplate  one  object  at  one  time,  and 
may  well  aim  to  concentrate  attention  upon 
certain  features  of  things,  certain  individual 
and  choice  instances,  but  this  arises  from  the 
limitation  of  our  powers  of  observation  and 
comprehension,  and  by  no  means  from  a  dis- 
tinctive superiority  in  the  objects  and  subjects 

7 


98  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  DESIGN. 

selected.  When,  for  example,  we  select  the 
human  eye  for  study,  as  affording  special  evi- 
dence of  the  exercise  of  creative  skill  and  adap- 
tation, it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  innumera- 
ble other  objects  exist  which  likewise  display 
similar  evidence.  Since  we  do  not  know  a  more 
admirable  natural  optical  instrument,  the  selec- 
tion of  this  for  study,  and  illustration,  or  the 
excitement  of  the  emotion  of  wonder  is  com- 
mendable, but  we  are  not  justified  in  referring 
to  it  as  an  exceptional  work  of  the  Divine 
hand.  In  the  grand  palace  of  Nature  every 
stone,  from  the  foundation  to  the  topmost 
superstructure,  is  equally  a  part  of  the  design 
of  its  Omniscient  Architect.  A  common  spec- 
tator of  a  grand  building  would  most  admire 
the  ornamental  decorations,  the  sculptured 
capitals,  the  enriched  cornices,  and  the  scrolls 
of  foliage,  exhibited  before  him,  but  the  more 
cultured  student  would  rather  observe  and 
commend  the  total  design,  the  noble  plan,  the 
combination  of  parts,  and  the  impressive 
grandeur  of  the  whole  building.  In  these  he 
would  discern  the  master  mind,  and  while  par- 
ticular details  would  receive  his  attention  in 
due  course,  he  would  derive  his  chief  impres- 
sions from,   and  pronounce  his  approbation  of 


FUNCTION  AND  PURPOSE.  qq 

the  entire  structure.  The  subordination  of  the 
smallest  details  to  the  one  all-embracing  and 
grand  conception  of  the  skilful  designer  and 
executer  of  the  building  would  elicit  his  admi- 
ration, and  elevate  his  conception  to  a  higher 
thinking-point  than  even  the  most  perfect  con- 
struction and  finish  of  particular  parts.  So 
would  it  be  with  our  contemplation  of  the 
grand  Temple  of  Nature,  could  we  behold  it  as 
a  perfect  whole.  Since,  however,  we  are 
limited  to  parts  and  particulars,  our  impres- 
sions and  our  emotions  are  proportionally 
fainter.  Hence  the  multiplication  of  evidences 
of  design,  and  prevision  and  adaptation  serve 
an  important  purpose.  At  most  they  are  but 
a  small  part  of  the  great  whole,  but  the  more 
of  them  we  observe,  the  more  extended,  the 
better  defined  is  our  conception  of  the  grandeur 
and  perfection  of  the  entire  structure.  ''Lo, 
these  are  parts  of  His  ways,  but  how  little  a 
portion  is  heard  of  Him, — but  the  thunder  of 
His  power  who  can  understand  ?" 

Fimdion  and  Purpose  iji  Structure. — Were  it 
compatible  with  our  object  and  our  limits  to 
enlarge  on  the  relation  of  structure  to  function 
in  the  animal  kingdom,  the  argument  from  de- 
sign might  be  enlarged  and  corroborated  to  an 

7a 


loo  FUNCTION  AND  PURPOSE. 

almost  surprising  extent,  certainly  to  an  extent 
surprising  to  ordinary  readers.  An  entire 
volume  would  be  insufficient  for  the  number 
of  examples  which  might  be  adduced.  Much 
of  this  nature  has  already  been  written  in  well 
known  books,  and  it  is  needless  to  quote  from 
them.  Such  books  have  their  distinct  and  un- 
deniable value  for  all  except  the  opponents  and 
deniers  of  design.  Some  indeed  are  nearly 
forgotten,  which  well  deserve  to  be  read 
again  in  our  day.  The  small  tractates  entitled 
* 'Animal  Mechanics,  or  Proofs  of  Design  in  the 
Animal  Frame,"  written  many  years  ago  by 
Sir  Charles  Bell,  form  an  excellent  introduc- 
tion to  this  study.  The  author  himself  was 
improved  and  informed  by  the  preparation  of 
these  nearly  forgotten  papers,  for  we  read  in 
his  recently  published  letters  these  words,  ''  I 
have  written  an  essay  on  the  architecture  of 
the  head,  which  has  put  Marion  (his  wife)  and 
me  on  the  study  of  things  we  little  dreamt  of" 
Here  may  also  be  introduced  his  remarks  on 
the  study  of  Anatomy  and  Structure.  "I,  for 
my  part,  have  no  pleasure  but  in  anatomy. 
You  will  say  that  it  is  that  I  may  become  the 
captain  of  anatomists ;  but  why  then  have  I 
such  inexhaustible   delight  in  the  whole  face 


STRUCTURE  AND  FUNCTION.  loi 

of  Nature  ?  No,  it  is  the  pleasure  I  have  in 
investigating"  structure.  Everything  there  so 
perfect,  so  curiously  fitted,  and  leading  you  by 
little  and  little  to  the  comprehension  of  a 
wisdom  so  perfect,  that  I  am  forced  to  believe 
that,  in  the  moral  world,  things  are  not  really 
left  in  all  that  disarray  which  our  partial  view 
would  persuade  us  they  are.  But,  sure  I  am, 
that  the  study  of  what  is  called  Nature  is  in- 
finitely agreeable,  and  the  contemplation  of 
the  moral  state  is  most  offensive  to  the  notions 
of  rectitude  which  Nature  has  implanted.  I 
wish  I  could  persuade  you  to  dip  a  little  into 
natural  history  and  structure.  How  much  I 
regret  that  I  did  not  make  myself  acquainted 
with  Natural  History."* 

In  another  letter  Sir  Charles  Bell  wrote  :  ^^  I 
love  Nature  and  Nature's  God,  with  a  sense  of 
devotion  and  delight  inferior  to  no  man,  and  I 
have  never  for  a  day  let  myself  be  lost  in  mere 
worldliness." 

The  knowledge  of  Animal  Mechanics  is  now 
so  widely  extended,  and  the  examples  akin  to 
those  adduced  by  Sir  Charles  Bell  are  so 
greatly  multiplied,  that  the  want  of  an  ade- 

*  Letters  of  Sir  Charles  Bell,  1870.  In  a  note  to  this  letter 
the  editor  says,  "  To  him  this  (structure)  was'  a  large  word  j 
these  investigations  were  the  delight  of  his  hfe." 


I02  STRUCTURE  AND  FUNCTION. 

quate  and  full  enumeration  of  them  in  a  gene- 
rally intelligible  form  is  felt  by  many.  Here 
is  a  rich  storehouse  of  materials  for  a  qualified 
expositor.  Human  and  comparative  anatomy, 
zoology  and  physiology  have  so  rapidly  ad- 
vanced, and  the  accumulation  of  observations 
in  these  sciences  is  so  great,  while  the  instru- 
ments of  research  are  also  much  improved,  that 
an  ample  harvest  of  illustrations  is  ready  for 
the  zealous  reaper. 

For  the  due  success  of  any  such  work,  there 
must  be  a  clear  statement  of  the  relation  of 
structure  to  function,  and  a  continuous  exhibi- 
tion of  the  nearness  and  directness  of  this 
relation.  In  connection  with  this  observation 
some  pertinent  remarks  of  a  recent  and  careful 
writer  may  here  be  cited. 

"  I  may  be  told,  when  I  say  that  the  relation 
of  structure  to  function  is  the  same  thing  with 
the  relation  of  means  to  purpose,  I  am  assum- 
ing as  true  an  hypothesis  which  has  not  and 
cannot  be  verified.  I  reply  that  the  relation  of 
special  structure  to  special  function,  as  for  in- 
stance the  relation  of  the  structure  of  the  eye 
to  the  function  of  vision,  is  something  which 
has  no  analogy  whatever  in  the  inorganic  cre- 
ation, although  it  has  analogies  in  machinery 


STRUCTURE  AND  FUNCTION.  103 

and  other  apparatus  of  human  invention.  The 
analogy  of  the  eye  to  the  camera  obscura  is  a 
case  in  point ;  in  fact  the  eye  is  a  camera. 
And  in  speaking  of  such  organic  adaptations, 
we  naturally  and  almost  inevitably  fall  into  the 
habit  of  regarding  special  function  as  a  proof 
of  purpose  ;  and  of  speaking  of  the  function  of 
an  organ  and  of  its  purpose  as  if  the  words 
were  synonymous ;  and  this  habit  is  not  found 
to  be  misleading;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  a  rule 
in  physiological  research  (though  subject  to  a 
few  very  remarkable  exceptions),  that  every 
organ,  and  every  structural  arrangement  must 
have  its  own  special  purpose.  These  are  facts 
very  much  generalized  no  doubt,  but  still 
facts  of  observation,  concerning  which  there  is 
no  room  for  doubt  or  controversy.  But  when 
it  is  denied  that  there  is  any  discernible  pur- 
pose in  the  organic  creation,  the  meaning 
appears  to  be  that  the  relation  of  special  struc- 
ture to  special  function,  or  what  I  have  called 
the  relation  of  means  to  purpose,  is  in  reality 
only  a  particular  case  of  the  relation  of  cause 
and  effect.  It  would  be  impossible  for  any 
man  of  the  slightest  intelligence  simply  to 
deny  the  existence  of  the  most  wonderful 
special  adaptations  in  the  organic  creation.     I 


I04  MEANS  AND  PURPOSE. 

believe  that  the  relation  of  means  and  purpose 
in  organization  is  as  much  a  primary  law  of 
nature,  and  as  incapable  of  being  resolved  into 
any  other  more  general  principle,  as  the  rela- 
tion of  cause  and  effect.  As  we  ascend  in  the 
scale  of  nature  to  higher  and  higher  vital  func- 
tions, and  higher  and  higher  organic  forms,  we 
find  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect  becoming 
less  traceable  by  our  faculties  (though  no  doubt 
it  exists  all  through  nature) ;  while  at  the  same 
time  the  relation  of  means  and  purpose  be- 
comes at  once  more  traceable  and  definite. 
No  where  in  the  universe  as  known  to  us  is 
the  relation  of  means  and  purpose  miore  clearly 
traceable  and  more  perfectly  definite  than  in 
the  organs  of  special  sense  in  the  higher 
animals,  especially  in  the  eye  and  ear,  and  no 
where  is  it  more  difficult,  (I  would  say,  utterly 
impossible),  to  assign  any  physical  cause  for 
the  facts,  as  when  we  inquire  by  what  cause,  or 
by  what  agency,  such  wonderful  organs  have 
been  formed,  And  as  we  ascend  in  nature, 
not  only  do  the  separate  functions  become  more 
traceable,  but  their  natural  relations  become 
more  definite.  The  trunk,  the  leaves,  and  the 
flowers  of  a  tree  for  instance  have  each  their 
function ;  but  it  would  be   unmeaning  to  ask 


ULTIMATE  PURPOSE.  105 


whether  the  tree  exists  for  the  leaves  or  the 
leaves  for  the  tree.  But  in  all  the  higher 
animals  the  parts  manifestly  exist  for  the 
whole,  not  the  whole  for  the  parts."* 

When  we  begin  to  enquire  respecting  Ulti- 
mate Purpose,  that  is,  purpose  beyond  the 
present  apparent  order  and  constitution  of 
things.  Natural  Science  fails  to  give  a  reply. 
We  may  show  for  instance  how  coal  and  metals 
have  been  stored  and  arranged  conveniently 
for  the  use  of  man ;  but,  having  arrived  at 
human  advantage,  we  can  proceed  no  further 
by  any  natural  knowledge.  Dynamical  laws, 
modes  of  formation  and  cosmical  arrangements, 
and  present  benefits  can  be  discovered  and  un- 
folded ;  and  this  is  the  province  of  Science.  In 
considering  the  entire  inorganic  world,  Science 
cannot  inform  us  in  any  degree  as  to  the 
ultimate  purpose  of  such  a  world. 

Nor  can  Science  do  much  more  even  in  the 
organic  world.  At  the  best  physiology  shows 
to  us  the  function  of  structures  in  their  mutual 
relations,  and  the  relations  of  parts  to  the  com- 
plete organism.  There,  however,  it  pauses. 
Ultimate  purpose  is  quite  beyond  its  province. 

*  Murphy  on  "Habit  and  Intelligence,"  (2  vols.  1869)  vol.  i., 
p.  119,  etc.  .    , 


io6  ULTIMATE  PURPOSE. 

The  relation  of  parts  to  one  whole  may  be  dis- 
played with  an  increasing  skill ;  but  the  relation 
of  wholes  to  wholes,  and  their  combination  to  an 
ultimate  creative  purpose,  is  a  study  in  advance 
of  Natural  Science,  although  Science  is  essential 
at  the  threshold,  as  giving  us  the  proper  means 
of  enquiry,  and  as  affording  us  the  basis  of 
reasoning.  Having,  however,  enabled  us  to 
lay  the  foundation,  it  has  done  its  utmost  and 
must  leave  any  superstructure  to  other  hands. 

At  this  stage  the  Higher  Ministry  of  Nature 
may  be  brought  into  exercise,  and  by  its  aid 
we  may  erect  a  superstructure  .upon  the  scien- 
tific foundation.  We  may  safely  reason  in  the 
same  mode  as  before,  but  must  continue  in  a 
higher  direction.  We  may  speculate  from  the 
known  to  the  unknown,  and  the  conditions  of 
the  former  being  ascertained,  we  may  warrant- 
ably  conjecture  some  of  the  conditions  of  the 
unknown.  Achieved  and  visible  purposes  are 
all  that  come  within  universal  cognizance  ;  but 
far  beyond  the  achieved  and  the  visible,  a 
thousand  purposes  may  extend  into  unlimited 
space  and  time.  All  the  ends  which  appear  to 
us  may  be  means  in  the  eye  of  the  Divine  Ac- 
complisher,  and  such  means  may  conduce  to 
other  ends,  and  other  ends  to  other  means  in  a 


ULTIMATE  PURPOSE,  107 

limitless  concatenation.  The  golden  chain  may 
be  stretched  out  into  worlds  beyond  worlds, 
and  the  evolution  of  successive  great  purposes 
may  mark  the  stages  of  eternity. 

This  is  strictly  consistent  with  our  ordinary 
conception  of  one  ever-living  and  all -wise  God. 
What  we  discover  of  His  character  and  objects, 
or  of  His  purposes  as  cognoscible  by  us,  na- 
turally prompts  us  to  project  into  futurity  the 
same  characters  in  relation  to  other  and  similar 
purposes.  If  we  can  arrive  at  the  inference,  from 
our  knowledge  of  Nature,  that  God  has  hitherto 
been  working  in  love  for  his  creatures,  as  well 
as  in  power,  the  additional  inference  is  strictly 
logical,  that  the  Unchangeable  One  will  con- 
tinue to  work  in  love  as  well  as  in  power  on 
our  behalf.  If  he  were  the  malignant  being 
that  many  creeds  and  some  philosophers  have 
represented  him,  then  his  future  and  ulterior 
purposes  might  be  malignant  and  terrible  to 
apprehend.  If  he  were  inconsistent  with  him- 
self, his  ulterior  might  be  inconsistent  with  his 
preceding  purposes.  But  admitting  that  he  is 
self-consistent,  invariable  and  without  the 
shadow  of  a  turning,  our  conjectures  from  the 
present  to  his  ulterior  purposes  bear  something 
of  the  quality  of  certainties.     Supposing  then 


io8  ULTIMATE  PURPOSE, 


that  we  discern  most,  if  not  all,  of  his  purposes 
now  discoverable  by  us,  to  tend  in  particular 
well-defined  directions,  we  become  confident 
that  in  similar  directions  other  means  will 
follow,  tending  to  other  similar  purposes.  In 
brief,  what  Nature  points  out  to  us  that  God 
now  is,  may  be  some  indication  of  what  God 
will  for  ever  be.  Prophetic  Nature  will  ad- 
dress herself  to  Faith  rather  than  to  Know- 
ledge ;  but  as  the  ages  roll  on,  Faith  will  give 
place  to  Knowledge,  and  Knowledge  will  store 
up  accomplished  ends  as  cumulative  proofs  of 
the  goodness  of  the  Omnipotent. 


THE  INFINITE  AND  ABSOLUTE.  109 


VIL 

THE  INFINITE— THE  ABSOLUTE  BEING, 

A  LTHOUGH  this  subject  is  remote  from 
■^  ^  common  thought,  and  demands  mental 
discipline  for  its  apprehension,  yet  it  possesses 
so  much  importance  that  a  brief  consideration 
of  it  cannot  be  dispensed  with  ;  and  so  earnest 
a  controversy  has  been  maintained  upon  it,  that 
to  pass  by  it  because  of  its  inherent  difficulties 
would  be  an  unwarrantable  omission. 

We  have  briefly  treated  of  the  Divine  De- 
signer, the  Supreme  First  Cause,  who  is  at  the 
same  time  the  Infinite  and  the  Absolute  One. 
We  presume  that  we  can  acquire  sure  and  in- 
creasing knowledge  of  Him  from  Nature,  and 
we  are  now  directly  brought  to  this  philo- 
sophical question — is  it  possible  to  learn  any- 
thing or  form  any  conception  of  the  Absolute 
or  the  Infinite — does  He   in   such  characters 


no  THE  INFINITE  AND  ABSOLUTE. 

necessarily  transcend  all  comprehension,  all 
mental  apprehension,  and  all  reasoning-  ?  If 
he  does  transcend  them  entirely  and  hopelessly, 
if  no  concept  of  the  Absolute  or  Infinite  is  pos- 
sible to  us,  then  all  Religious  Philosophy  and 
all  definite  Natural  Theology  must  in  this  world 
be  impracticable ;  or  in  other  and  perhaps 
preferable  terms,  we  are  led  to  reason  in  one 
direction  by  Nature  and  in  another  by  Meta- 
physics, the  latter  being  the  negation  of  the 
former.  Abstruse  as  the  enquiry  necessarily  is, 
it  may,  nevertheless,  be  intelligibly  stated  and 
in  some  measure  popularly  expounded.  Those 
who  desire  to  investigate  it  more  fully  can 
refer  to  the  authors  noticed  in  this  chapter. 

It  is  to  the  high  reputation  and  influence  cf 
the  late  Sir  William  Hamilton  that  the  frequent 
prevalence  of  views  respecting  our  necessary 
ignorance  of  God  as  Infinite  is  due,  though, 
probably,  he  himself  would  have  recoiled  from 
some  of  the  applications  now  made  of  his  doc- 
trine. Hamilton,  indeed,  has  explicitly  declared 
that  philosophy  must  erect  her  altar  to  the 
Unknown  and  Unknowable  God. 

The  manner  in  which  this  doctrine  has  been 
adopted  and  applied  by  Dr.  Mansel  in  his 
Bampton  Lecture,  though  acceptable  to  many, 


THE  INFINITE  AND  ABSOLUTE,  ni 

has  called  forth  strong  remonstrances  from 
several  able  thinkers,  and  especially  Mr.  John 
Stuart  Mill  and  the  Reverend  F.  D.  Maurice. 
The  aim  to  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  a 
Divine  Revelation  to  man  from  the  impossibility 
of  his  forming  any  conception  of  the  Absolute 
One  without  it,  was  no  doubt  well  intended, 
but  does  not  appear  to  be  well-founded.  It 
is  not  needful  for  us  to  point  out  the  dis- 
astrous consequences  of  such  a  doctrine  if  it 
were  carried  to  the  extreme. 

In  his  "Philosophy  of  the  Unconditioned" 
Sir  William  Hamilton  has  affirmed,  and  with 
all  his  power  endeavoured  to  establish  our 
necessary  ignorance  of  the  Absolute.  We 
shall  endeavour  to  present  his  views  in  a  few 
sentences,  which  may  be  taken  as  a  simplifica- 
tion of  the  whole  doctrine.  The  Absolute  is  thus 
defined  by  Sir  William  Hamilton  "  AbsGlutuvi 
means  that  which  is  freed  or  loosed,"  in  which 
sense  the  Absolute  will  be  that  which  is  aloof 
from  relation,  comparison,  limitation,  condition, 
dependence,  etc." 

Dr.  Mansel  thus  more  plainly  defines  the 
word — ''By  the  Absolute  is  meant,  that  which 
exists  in  and  by  itself;  having  no  necessary 
relation  to  anv  other  Being." 


112  THE  INFINITE  AND  ABSOLUTE. 

Sir  William  Hamilton's  views  may  be  thus 
epitomized  under  three  heads  : — 

1.  The  Infinite  and  the  Absolute  cannot  be 
represented  by  the  imagination,  and,  therefore, 
cannot  be  apprehended  in  thought. 

2.  In  all  attempts  to  reason  about  the  Infinite 
we  fall  into  contradictions  and  absurdities,  from 
which  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  our  mental  faculties 
are  inadequate  to  such  thinking. 

3.  All  matter  of  thought  must  first  be  given 
to  us  from  without,  through  perception  ;  or,  from 
within,  by  self- consciousness.  But  there  is 
nothing  infinite  either  in  that  which  we  experi- 
ence, or  in  our  own  nature.  Therefore,  there 
is  no  source  from  whence  a  notion  of  the  In- 
finite can  be  furnished  to  us. 

In  respect  of  the  first  statement,  Hamilton 
declares  that  the  Infinite  is  unimaginable, 
because  *' we  cannot  positively  represent,  or 
realize,  or  construe  to  the  mind  an  infinite  whole; 
for  this  could  only  be  done  by  the  definite 
cog-nition  in  thousfht  of  infinite  wholes — which 
would  itself  require  an  infinite  time  for  its 
accomplishment.  Nor  for  the  same  reason 
can  we  follow  out  in  thoughts  an  infinite  divisi- 
bility of  parts.  The  result  is  the  same,  whether 
we  apply  the  process  to  limitation  in  zpace,  in 


THE  INFINITE  AND   THE  ABSOLUTE.      113 

time,  or  in  degree.  The  unconditional  negation 
and  the  unconditional  affirmation  of  limitation 
— in  other  words,  the  infinite  and  the  absolute, 
properly  so  called,  are  thus  absolutely  incon- 
ceivable to  us.      (Discussions,  p.  13.) 

Dr.  Mansel  adopts  the  same  opinion,  and 
carries  it  to  his  favourite  theological  issue.  In 
opposition  to  both,  and  to  the  one  radical  doc- 
trine which  both  maintain,  let  us  cite  the  clear 
counter-statement  of  a  writer  who  has  no  theo- 
logical leanings  whatever,  and  who  merely 
speaks  as  a  metaphysical  critic  in  objecting 
decidedly  to  this  tenet. 

*'  Besides  that  definite  consciousness  of  which 
logic  furnishes  the  laws,  there  is  also  an  indefinite 
consciousness  which  cannot  be  formulated. 
Besides  complete  thoughts,  and  besides  the 
thoughts  which  though  incomplete  admit  of 
completion,  there  are  thoughts  which  it  is 
impossible  to  complete ;  and  yet  which  are 
still  real,  in  the  sense  that  they  are  normal 
affections  of  the  intellect. 

Observe  in  the  first  place,  that  every  one  of 
the  arguments  by  which  the  relativity  of  our 
knowledge  is  demonstrated,  distinctively  postu- 
lates the  positive  existence  of  something  beyond 
the  relative.     To  say  that  we  cannot  know  the 

8 


114     COKCEIVABLENESS  OF  THE  INFINITE. 


Absolute  is  by  implication  to  affirm  that  this  is 
an  Absolute.  In  the  very  denial  of  our  power 
to  learn  ivhat  the  Absolute  is,  there  lies  hidden 
the  assumption  that  it  is;  and  the  making 
of  this  assumption  proves  that  the  Absolute  has 
been  present  to  the  mind,  not  as  a  nothing  but 
as  a  something.  Strike  out  from  the  argument 
the  terms  Unconditioned,  Infinite,  Absolute, 
with  their  equivalents,  and  in  place  of  them 
write  "  negation  of  conceivability  "or  '*  absence 
of  the  conditions  under  which  consciousness  is 
possible,"  and  you  find  that  the  argument 
becomes  nonsense.  Surely  to  realize  in  thought 
any  one  of  the  propositions  of  which  the  argu- 
ment consists,  the  Unconditioned  must  be 
represented  as  positive  and  not  negative.  How 
then  can  it  be  a  legitimate  conclusion  from  the 
argument,  that  our  consciousness  of  it  is 
negative  ?  An  argument  the  very  construction 
of  which  assigns  to  a  term  a  certain  meaning, 
but  which  ends  in  showing  that  this  term  has  no 
such  meaning,  is  simply  an  elaborate  suicide. 
Clearly  then  the  very  demonstration  that  a 
definite  consciousness  of  the  Absolute  is  impos- 
sible to  us,  unavoidably  presupposes  an  indefinite 
consciousness  of  it."  * 

"  First  Principles,"  by  Herbert  Spencer,  1867. 


CONCEIVABLENESS  OF  THE  ABSOLUTE.     115 

It  has  also  been  well  observed  by  Dr.  Noah 
Porter  respecting  the  statements  of  Hamilton 
and  Mansel,  "When  these  statements  are  closely 
scrutinized,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  so-called 
negative  thinking  is  simply  a  peculiar  method 
of  knowing  or  believing  which  is  unlike,  and 
so  the  negative  of  another  particular  way  of 
thinking  or  believing.  That  the  Absolute  is 
believed  to  exist,  is  affirmed  by  both  Mansel 
and  Hamilton,  as  well  as  by  Kant.  They 
contend  that  it  is  not  known  under  the  limita- 
tions or  relations  which  are  appropriate  to 
thought.  Let  this  be  allowed  ;  it  does  not 
prove  that  what  is  known  is  therefore  negatively 
known,  or  that  the  process  by  which  it  is  known 
is  a  ^''process  of  negative  thinkingy 

It  is  expressly  contended  by  Dr.  Porter,  that 
when  we  have  properly  defined  the  term 
Absolute^  then  the  absolute  is  knowable — that 
man  can  both  know  that  it  is  and  zvhat  it  is.  It 
cannot  be  known  by  the  imagination  either  as 
representative  or  creative — for  the  imagination 
can  only  picture  that  which  is  limited  by  space 
and  time,  and  which  is  possessed  of  limited 
powers  of  matter  or  spirit.  While  it  is  necessary 
to  use  the  imagination  in  order  to  know  the 
absolute,  because  it  pictures  the  finite  objects 


ii6    CONCEIVABLENESS  OF    THE  ABSOLUTE. 

which  suppose  and  require  the  infinite  and 
absolute ;  yet  the  imagination  cannot  in  any 
useful  or  proper  sense  picture  the  absolute 
itself. 

Further,  the  absolute  though  knowable,  is 
not  a  notion  which  is  the  product  of  reasoning 
inductive  or  deductive,  or  that  can  be  defined 
in  a  system  of  logical  classification.  But  it  can 
be  and  is  known  as  the  correlate  which  must  be 
necessarily  assumed  to  explain  and  account  for 
the  finite  universe.  We  cannot  know  that  it  is, 
without  to  a  certain  degree  knowing  what  it  is. 
If  it  is  necessary  to  the  mind  to  assume  the 
absolute  in  order  to  explain  the  finite,  then  the 
finite  is  certainly  explained  by  those  relations 
which  it  holds  to  the  absolute.  Those  relations 
must  be  real,  else  our  knowledge  is  a  fiction.* 

A  formal  opponent  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
unknowable  absolute  is  Mr.  Calderwood,  who 
in  his  '*  Philosophy  of  the  Infinite,"  has 
brought  the  subject  under  deliberate  and  decisive 
discussion.  His  views  may  be  thus  condensed  : — 

1.  Man  does  realize  a  positive  notion  of  the 
Infinite. 

2.  This  is  not  realized  by  any  course  of 
addition  or  progression  either  in  space  or  time, 

*  "  The  Human  Intellect,"  by  Dr.  Noah  Porter,  1868. 


CHARACTER   OF  THE   CONCEPTION.        117 

which  Starting-  from  the  finite  seeks  to  reach  the 
infinite ;  and  it  is  not  the  result  of  any  logical 
demonstration. 

3.  This  notion  of  the  infinite  is  in  fact  an 
ultimate  datum  of  consciousness,  involved  in 
the  constitution  of  the  mind,  and  arising  in 
various  relations. 

4.  This  notion  of  the  infinite,  though  real 
and  positive,  is  only  partial  and  indefinite, 
capable  of  enlargement,   but  not  of  perfection. 

It  will  hardly  be  denied  by  those  who  have 
thought  on  these  subjects,  that  the  simple  idea 
of  God  is  native  to  man's  soul,  and  is  the 
result  of  a  prompt  and  universal  exercise  of  the 
understanding.  In  all  such  inquiries  we  must 
accept  the  testimony  of  consciousness  as  a 
revelation  of  the  facts  relating  to  our  inward 
being,  and  such  testimony  must  be  accepted 
unconditionally;  otherwise  no  philosophy  is 
possible.  Universal  consciousness  testifies  to 
the  existence  of  God.  From  the  spiritual  nature 
within  ourselves,  we  reason  to  the  spiritual 
nature  above  and  over  all.  Although  we  may 
not  form  a  mental  image  of  spirit  as  distin- 
guished from  matter,  we  have  a  clear  fixed  idea 
of  a  spirit  dwelling  within  us,  which  is  the  resi- 
dence of  spiritual  attributes,   and   the  source 


ii8       CHARACTER    OF  THE   COA-^CEFTTON. 

of  a  spiritual  life  and  energies.  The  mind  of 
man  is  a  reflected  ray  of  illumination  from  the 
Mind  above  all  minds.  We  do  not  adequately 
know  our  own  minds,  and  therefore  cannot  ex- 
pect to  form  any  other  than  a  most  inadequate 
idea  of  God.  Still  this  idea  is  positive  and 
impressive.  It  leads  also  to  positive  conclu- 
sions, such  as  that  God  is  infinite.  But  infinity 
is  not  all  that  constitutes  God ;  if  it  were,  He 
would  be,  strictly  speaking-,  incognizable,  al- 
though we  form  some  notion  of  infinity,  how- 
ever indistinct.  The  human  mind  knows  that 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  infinitude.  It  is  the  idea 
of  Universal  Being,  which  includes  all  beings  in 
itself.  Our  minds  form  an  idea  of  infinity,  yet 
know  that  they  cannot  fully  comprehend  it. 
We  are  first  conscious  of  the  existence  of  the 
infinite,  and  then  we  narrow  the  conception  and 
make  it  finite.  Our  idea  does  not  represent 
the  Infinite  Being  as  He  is,  and  we  know  this 
well ;  nevertheless  it  represents  to  us  something 
determinate.  We  are  ever  conscious  that 
actual  infinity  is  really  beyond  the  grasp  of  our 
conceptions ;  but  we  know  that  there  is  an  in- 
finite God,  and  what  is  important,  that  He  is 
something  more  than  infinity.* 

*  See  Dr.  John  Young's  "  Province  of  Reason,"  in  reply  to 


CHARACTER   OF  THE   CONCEPTION,        119 

That  we  may  determine  what  our  knowledge 
of  the  Infinite  Being  is,  we  must  first  determine 
the  characters  and  degrees  of  knowledge  in 
general ;  and  we  cannot  do  this  better  than  in 
the  terms  of  Leibnitz,  who  classifies  these 
degrees  as  follows  :  "  Knowledge  is  either  ob- 
scure or  clear ;  and  clear,  again,  is  either  com- 
posed or  distinct ;  and  distinct  is  either  inade- 
quate or  adequate ;  also  either  symbolic  or  in- 
tuitive ;  and  if  it  be  at  the  same  time  adequate 
and  intuitive,  it  is  perfect." — (Medit.  de  Cog- 
nitione,  etc.)  Now,  in  relation  to  this  classifi- 
cation, it  has  been  well  observed,  that  our 
knowledge  of  the  Infinite  God  is  a  clear  know- 
ledge ;  that  is,  we  clearly  distinguish  the  object 
of  knowledge  from  any  other  existence ;  and 
our  knowledge  is  distinct,  inasmuch  as  we  are 
able  to  distinguish  from  each  other  the  various 
attributes  of  the  Divine  Nature ;  but  while 
it  is  distinct,  our  knowledge  is  inadequate,  be- 
cause our  power  of  knowing  is  insufficient  to 
embrace  the  Infinite  in  the  fulness  of  His  im- 
mensity. 

Dean  Mansel's  Bampton  Lecture,  where  he  says  that  the  failing 
which  vitiates  that  book  is  that  infinity  co7istitutes  God,  and 
that  since  that  which  is  infinite  is  inconceivable,  therefore  He 
is  only  and  wholly  inconceivable  and  unknowable. 


I20  CONTINUOUS  EXPANSION. 

We  make,  however,  an  Important  advance  in 
the  same  direction  of  thought,  by  adding  that, 
while  our  knowledge  of  the  Absolute  Being 
here,  by  the  exercise  of  unaided  reason,  is 
limited,  it  is  nevertheless  expansive.  The  finite 
cannot  fully  comprehend  the  infinite  ;  but  it  can 
gradually  comprehend  more  and  yet  more  ;  and 
all  can  clearly  understand  that,  though  the 
term  finite  is  proper  in  comparison  with  the  in- 
finite, there  is  no  warrant  for  concluding  that 
the  soul  of  man  is  incapable  of  such  an  enlarge- 
ment of  comprehension  as  that  when  compared 
with  his  present  limitations,  it  may  not  be  con- 
sidered as  relatively  unrestricted.  Who  can  de- 
termine the  limits  of  the  future  expansion  of 
immortal  mind  ?  In  this  conviction  we  avail 
ourselves  of  the  language  of  Mr.  Calderwood  : 

"  Our  knowledge  of  the  Infinite  Being,  while 
limited  and  indefinite,  is  capable  of  continuous 
expansion.  As  we  are  conscious  of  no  limits 
in  the  Deity,  but  rest  in  the  certain  assurance 
of  His  infinitude,  we  are  conscious  of  no  re- 
straint, such  as  would  finally  terminate  our  ad- 
vancement In  the  knowledge  of  His  boundless 
excellence.  We  discover  no  Impassable  barrier 
to  further  progress,  staying  us  in  our  contem- 
plations, and  saying,  *  Thus  far  shall  ye  go  and 


CONTINUOUS  EXPANSION,  121 

no  farther, — thus  much  shall  ye  know  and  no-, 
thing-  more.'  We  are,  indeed  restricted  by  the 
conditions  which  have  been  attached  to  the  ope- 
rations of  our  cognitive  powers,  and  which  it  is 
necessarily  impossible  for  these  powers  on  any 
occasion  to  overleap;  but  these  are  no  hindrance 
to  continuous  progress.  In  harmony  with  these 
conditions,  we  find  that  persevering  contempla- 
tion and  study  secure  for  us  continuous  progress 
in  knowledge ;  ever  as  we  return  to  renewed 
effort,  we  find  the  same  freedom  granted  to  us  for 
the  enlargement  of  the  sphere  of  our  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Divine  excellence  ;  and  still  as  we 
advance,  we  see  more  and  more  clearly  before 
us  the  soul-inspiring  prospect  of  the  indefinite 
expansion  of  this  form  of  knowledge,  which  to 
an  intelligent  creature,  bearing  the  image  of 
God,  must  ever  seem  transcendently  attractive. 
With  eternal  existence  before  us,  the  prospect 
is  intellectually,  morally,  and  spiritually,  a 
glorious  one.  The  conditions  which  the  Crea- 
tor has  attracted  to  our  cognitive  powers,  serve 
only  to  guide  and  not  to  hinder  them  in  their 
exercise  ;  and  if  the  restraints  of  a  feeble  body, 
the  distractions  of  manifold  cares,  and  the 
darkness  of  a  sinful  condition  be  only  taken 
away,  we  have  faculties  which  fit  us  for  cease- 


122  MR.  J.  S.  MILLS  OPINION. 

less  progress  in  the  sublimest  of  all  human 
studies."  * 

The  most  elaborate  and  vigorous  assailant 
of  Sir  William  Hamilton's  doctrine  is  Mr.  John 
Stuart  Mill,  in  his  volume  specially  devoted  to 
an  ''  Examination  of  Sir  William  Hamilton's 
Philosophy."  In  its  pages  the  writer  takes  the 
same  direction  of  thought  as  that  just  stated, 
and  argues  most  earnestly  against  Dean  Man- 
sel's  application  of  Hamilton's  doctrine,  pro- 
nouncing it  to  be  the  most  pernicious  current 
doctrine  of  the  day.  His  language  is  strong, 
and  in  one  often-quoted  passage  (from  page 
103)  has  been  held  to  be  very  objectionable, 
but  Mr.  Mill's  conviction  of  the  dangerous 
consequences  of  Dean  Mansel's  distinctions 
is  so  profound,  that  strong  denunciation  might 
be  expected  from  him.  All  who  wish  to  pursue 
this  important  inquiry,  and  who  feel  perplexed 
by  the  applications  made  of  Hamilton's  doc- 
trine, should  read  that  portion  of  Mr.  Mill's 
volume  which  relates  to  this  subject,  and  they 
will  perceive  how  logically  baseless  is  the  argu- 
ment that  would  exclude  us  from  all  natural 
conceptions  of  the  absolute,  and  the  infinite ; 
more  especially  the  opinion  that  the  attributes 

*  "  The  Philosophy  of  the  Infinite/'  p.  234. 


VICTOR   COUSIN'S   VIEiV.  •  123 


of  God  are  essentially  different  from  the  like 
qualities  manifested  in  a  limited  degree  in 
man.  The  latter  view  is  quite  untenable  in 
any  true  philosophy  or  theology. 

With  relation  to  Hamilton's  theory,  we 
should  be  glad  to  introduce  more  detailed 
counter-statements  from  the  writers  referred 
to,  but  it  is  sufficient  perhaps  simply  to  indi- 
cate the  sources  in  which  they  may  be  found. 

Another  celebrated  philosopher,  Victor 
Cousin,  whose  views  were  opposed  by  Sir 
William  Hamilton  in  his  principal  essay,  has 
stated  them  apparently  in  a  somewhat  modified 
form  in  one  of  his  latest  works,  and  they  are 
here  cited  not  more  on  account  of  their  near 
approach  to  what  we  hold  to  be  the  truth  than 
for  their  felicity  of  expression.  Victor  Cousin 
observes : 

"  We  say,  in  the  first  place,  that  God  is  not 
absolutely  incomprehensible,  for  this  manifest 
reason,  that  being  the  cause  of  this  universe. 
He  passes  with  it,  and  is  reflected  in  it  as  the 
cause  in  the  effect ;  therefore,  we  recognize 
Him.  *  The  heavens  declare  His  glory,  and 
the  invisible  things  of  Him  from  the  creation 
of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood 
by  the  things  that  are  made.' — His  power  in 


124  VICTOR  COUSIN'S   VIEW. 

the  thousands   of  worlds  sown  in   the  bound- 
less regions  of  space ;   His  intelligence  in  their 
harmonious  laws.     Finally,  whilst  there  is  in 
Him,  all  that  is  most  august  in  the  sentiments 
of  virtue,  of  holiness,  of  love,  which  the  heart 
of  man  contains,  it  must  be   that  God  is  not 
incomprehensible  to  us  ;    for  all  nations  have 
petitioned  Him   since  the  first  day  of  the  in- 
tellectual life  of  humanity.     God  then,  as  the 
cause  of  the  universe,  reveals  Himself  to  us  ; 
but  God  is  not  only  the  cause  of  the  universe. 
He  is  also  the  perfect  and   infinite  cause,  pos- 
sessing in  Himself  not  only  a  relative  perfec- 
tion, which  is  only  a  degree  of  imperfection, 
but  as  absolute  perfection    as  infinity;    which 
is  not    only   the  finite  multiplied  by  itself,  in 
those   proportions   which    the   human  mind  is 
able  always  to  enumerate,  but  a  true  infinity 
that  is  the  absolute  negative  of  all  limits,  in 
all  the  powers  of  his  being.     Moreover,  it  is 
not  true  that  an    indefinite    effect    adequately 
expresses  an  infinite   cause;    hence    it    is    not 
true  that  we  are  able   absolutely  to    compre- 
hend God  by  the  world  and  by  man,  for    all 
of  God  is  not  in  them.     In  order  absolutely  to 
comprehend    the    infinite,    it    is    necessary  to 
have  an  infinite  power  of  comprehension,  and 


VICTOR   COUSIN'S    VIEW. 


that  is  not  granted  to  us.  God  in  manifest- 
ing himself  retains  something  in  Himself  which 
nothing  finite  can  absolutely  manifest ;  conse- 
quently it  is  not  permitted  us  to  comprehend 
absolutely.  There  remains,  then,  in  God,  be- 
yond the  universe  and  man,  something  un- 
known, impenetrable,  incomprehensible.  Hence 
in  the  immeasurable  spaces  of  the  universe, 
and  beneath  all  the  profundities  of  the  human 
soul,  God  escapes  as  in  that  inexhaustible  in- 
finitude, whence  he  is  able  to  draw  without 
limit,  new  worlds,  new  beings,  new  manifes- 
tations. God  is  to  us,  therefore,  incompre- 
hensible; but  even  of  this  incomprehensibility 
we  have  a  clear  and  precise  idea  ;  for  we  have 
the  most  precise  idea  of  infinity.  And  this 
idea  is  not  in  us  a  metaphysical  refinement, 
it  is  a  simple  primitive  conception  which  en- 
lightens us  from  our  entrance  into  this  world, 
both  luminous  and  obscure,  explaining  every- 
thing, and  being  explained  by  nothing,  because 
it  carries  us  at  first  to  the  summit  and  the  limit 
of  all  explanation.  There  is  something  inex- 
plicable for  thought, — behold  then  whither 
thought  tends  ;  there  is  infinite  being, — behold 
then  the  necessary  principle  of  all  relative  and 
finite  beings.     Reason  explains  not  the  inex- 


126  VICTOR  COUSIN'S   VIEW. 


plicable  ;  it  conceives  it.   It  is  not  able  to  com- 
prehend infinity  in  an  absolute  manner ;  but  it 
comprehends  it  in  some  degree  in  its  infinite 
manifestations,  which  reveal  it  and  which  veil 
it ;  and  further,  it  has  been  said,   it  compre- 
hends   it   so   far   as   incomprehensible.     It   is 
therefore  an  error  to  call  God  absolutely  com- 
prehensible,  and  absolutely  incomprehensible. 
He  is  both  invisible  and  present,   revealed  and 
withdrawn  in  Himself,  in  the  world  and  out  of 
the  world,   so  familiar  and  intimate  with  His 
creatures   that   we   see    Him    by  opening  our 
eyes,   that  we  feel  him  in  feeling  our  hearts 
beat,  and  at  the  same  time  inaccessible  in  His 
impenetrable  majesty;  mingled  with  everything 
and    separated    from    everything,    manifesting 
Himself  in  universal  life,  and  causing  scarcely 
an  ephemeral  shadow  of  his  eternal  essence  to 
appear  there  ;   communicating  Himself  without 
cessation,   and  remaining  incommunicable,   at 
once  the  living  God  and  the   God  concealed. 
'  Deus  vivus  et  Deus  absconditus.' "  * 

I  add  a  few  observations  upon  our  appre- 
hension of  the  moral  attributes  of  God,  which 
are  surely  not  beyond  our  grasp,  any  more  than 

*  Cousin's  Works,  First  Series,  vol.  iv.,  sec.  12,  quoted  by 
Professor  A.  C.  Fraser. 


DIVINE  ATTRIBUTES  KNOW  ABLE.  127 

the  Spiritual  nature  in  which  wisdom  and  moral 
attributes  dwell.  It  is  true  that  the  Divine 
attributes  in  their  greatness  and  infinitude  far 
transcend  our  comprehension,  but  their  actual 
existence  does  not  transcend  it.  Our  perception 
of  the  display  of  the  Divine  attributes  in  the 
natural  world  should  be  as  certain  and  clear  as 
our  perception  of  light.  We  feel  that  our  own 
moral  attributes  are  as  sparks  of  those  glorious 
Divine  attributes  which  go  forth  from  God  to 
enlighten  and  bless  all  created  beings  wherever 
they  may  dwell  in  the  universe. 

Dean  Mansel  combats  the  notion  *' that  the 
attributes  of  God  differ  from  those  of  man  in 
degree  only,  not  in  kind,  and  hence  that  cer- 
tain mental  and  moral  qualities  of  which  we 
are  immediately  conscious  in  ourselves,  furnish 
at  the  same  time  a  true  and  adequate  image  of 
the  infinite  perfection  of  God."  (The  w^ord 
adequate,  as  Mr.  Mill  observes  in  quoting  this 
passage  must  have  slipped  in  by  inadvertence, 
otherwise  it  would  be  an  inexcusable  misre- 
presentation) and  he  identifies  it  with  '*the 
Vulgar  Rationalism  which  regards  the  reason 
of  man,  in  its  ordinary  and  normal  operation, 
as  the  supreme  criterion  of  religious  truth." 
He   declares    the    principles    of    this    vulgar 


128  DIVINE  ATTRIBUTES  KNOWABLE, 

Rationalism  to  be  that  *'all  the  excellence  of 
which  we  are  conscious  in  the  creature,  must 
necessarily  exist  in  the  same  manner,  though 
in  a  higher  degree  in  the  Creator.  God  is  in- 
deed more  wise,  more  just,  more  merciful  than 
man  ;  but  for  this  very  reason  his  wisdom  and 
justice  and  mercy  must  contain  nothing  that  is 
incompatible  with  the  corresponding  attributes 
in  their  human  character."* 

Objecting  in  toto  to  this  view,  Mr.  Mill  says : 
*'  Here,  then,  I  take  my  stand  on  the  acknow- 
ledged principles  of  logic  and  of  morality,  that 
when  we  mean  different  things  we  have  no 
right  to  call  them  by  the  same  name,  and  to 
apply  to  them  the  same  predicates,  moral  and 
intellectual.  Language  has  no  meaning  for 
the  words  Just,  Merciful,  Benevolent,  save  that 
in  which  we  predicate  them  of  our  fellow 
creatures,  and  unless  that  is  what  we  intend  to 
express  by  them,  we  have  no  business  to  em- 
ploy the  words.  If  in  affirming  them  of  God, 
we  do  not  mean  to  affirm  these  very  qualities, 
differing  only  as  greater  in  degree,  we  are 
neither  philosophically  nor  morally  entitled 
to  affirm  them  at  all.  If  it  be  said  that  the 
qualities  are  the  same,  but  th-at  we  cannot  con- 

*  Bampton  Lecture,  "  Limits  of  Religious  Thought,"  p.  28. 


DIVINE  ATTRIBUTES  KNOW  ABLE.  129 

ceive  them  as  they  are  when  raised  to  the 
infinite,  I  grant  that  we  cannot  adequately 
conceive  them  in  one  of  their  elements,  their 
infinity.  But  we  can  conceive  them  in  their 
other  elements,  which  are  the  very  same  in  the 
infinite  as  in  the  finite  development.  Anything- 
carried  to  the  infinite  must  have  all  the  pro- 
perties of  the  same  thing  as  finite,  except 
those  which  depend  on  the  finiteness.  What 
belongs  to  it  (goodness)  as  Infinite  (or  more 
properly  as  Absolute)  I  do  not  pretend  to 
know,  but  I  know  that  infinite  goodness  must 
be  goodness,  and  that  what  is  not  consistent 
with  goodness,  is  not  consistent  with  infinite 
goodness.  "  * 

*  "  An  Examination  of  Sir  William  Hamilton's  Philosophy," 
1865,  p.  100,  etc 


i-,o      THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL  GOD, 


VIII. 

THE  INFINITE  AND  THE  PERSONAL  GOD. 

A  CONCEPTION  of  God  as  the  Infinite,  so 
far  as  it  is  attainable  by  us,  may  be  em- 
ployed in  two  opposite  directions,  one  being 
that  of  repression,  and  the  other  that  of  eleva- 
tion of  thought.  In  the  former  case,  it  may  be 
menacingly  though  fallaciously  pointed  towards 
the  extinction  of  a  consistent  idea  of  God  in 
the  human  mind,  by  showing  the  supposed  in- 
compatibleness  of  an  infinite  with  a  personal 
being.  It  may  be  argued  that  the  one  con- 
ception destroys  the  other,  and  that  either  God 
is  not  personal  or  not  infinite.  An  infinite  per- 
sonality may  be  said  to  be  contradictory  and 
unthinkable,  since  personality  has  conditions, 
while  infinitude  can  have  none.  It  is  vain  to 
affirm  that  this  consideration  forms  no  barrier 
to  our  thoughts ;  for  it  is  marked,   and  in  our 


THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL  GOD.       131 

present  state  insup^orable.  The  unbeliever, 
therefore,  readily  avails  himself  of  this  weapon 
of  attack.  On  the  other  hand,  the  conception 
of  infinitude,  at  least  as  the  opposite  of  finitude, 
may  be  employed  in  the  elevation  of  our 
thoughts  to  God.  In  a  devout  mind,  influenced 
by  faith  as  well  as  metaphysical  knowledg-e, 
the  aforesaid  difficulty  is  at  once  confessed, 
and  rightly  attributed  not  to- the  actual,  but  to 
the  apparent  incompatibleness  of  some  kind 
of  personality  with  infinitude.  In  nature  the 
Creator  and  the  Preserver  is  displayed  to  us  as 
infinite,  for  seemingly,  the  universe,  which  is 
His  handiwork,  is  infinite  ;  and  when  we  realize 
Him  as  the  Creator,  we  conceive  of  Him  as 
coextensive  with  creation.  As  the  Creator  of 
an  apparently  infinite  universe,  He  cannot  be 
less  than  His  own  work.  Yet  as  distinct 
Creator,  He  must  of  necessity  be  a  separate 
personality.  If  we  refuse  personality  to  Him, 
we  relapse  into  Pantheism  ;  if  we  doubt  His 
infinity.  He  ceases  to  be  the  Creator,  in  not 
being  coextensive  with  creation. 

Admit,  however.  His  infinite  personality  as  a 
great  truth,  although  a  great  mystery ;  regard 
and  worship  Him  as  a  person,  while  you  rever- 
ence Him  as  infinite ;    believe  in  His  dealings 


132       THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL   GOD. 

with  you  individually  as  the  Undivided  One ; 
in  your  responsibility  to  Him  as  a  son  is  respon- 
sible to  a  father,  or  a  servant  to  his  master. 
Foster  within  your  heart  and  soul  the  love 
awakened  by  His  benevolence  as  a  person,  and 
the  awe  inspired  by  His  infinity  as  Creator,  and 
then  you  gain  the  redoubled  blessing  which 
the  contemplation  of  God  in  His  mysterious 
twofold  character  should  afford  you.  Confess 
the  mystery,  for  you  cannot  solve  it ;  admit  it, 
for  you  are  not  compelled  to  solve  it.  Be  not 
impatient  under  your  limitations,  and  above  all, 
do  not,  because  of  those  limitations,  doubt  His 
existence ;  and  do  not  diffuse  your  conceptions 
of  it  into  an  indefinite  Pantheism.  This  by 
liberally  placing  God  everywhere,  places  Him 
in  particular  nowhere.  It  grants  Him  omnipre- 
sence, but  it  denies  Him  personality.  He  is 
everywhere  merely  because  He  is  everything, 
and  everything  is  equally  Divine.  This  de- 
stroys separate  existence  by  merging  all  indi- 
vidual distinctions.  It  enthrones  humanity  by 
dethroning  divinity. 

If  we  analyze  our  own  profoundest  religious 
meditations,  or  examine  those  which  have  been 
recorded  of  the  highest  minds,  we  shall  discern 
how  these   two  apparently  irreconcilable  con- 


THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL  GOD.      133 

ceptions  of  God  have  ministered  to  pure  and 
elevated  devotion.  The  devoutness  of  con- 
tracted and  uncultivated  understandings  must 
necessarily  be  restricted  to  a  low  level,  by 
limiting  the  character  of  God's  dealings  with 
them  to  a  narrow  sphere  of  thought,  and  often, 
alas  !  to  a  painfully  unworthy  notion  of  his 
greatness ;  but  what  is  painful  and  plainly  un- 
worthy in  this  respect,  should  not  be  allowed 
to  repress  our  attempts  to  ascend  to  and  com- 
mune with  the  awful  yet  merciful  King,  who, 
while  He  bears  a  regal  relation  to  all  existence, 
condescends  to  bear  a  personal  relation  to 
our  humble  individuality.  It  is  a  postulate 
of  enlightened  consciousness  that  He  must  be 
infinite ;  it  is  a  prompting  of  enlightened  con- 
sciousness that  He  must  be  also  personal.  By 
all  the  metaphysical  analyses  of  which  my 
mind  is  capable,  I  cannot  find  him  out  to  per- 
fection. By  all  His  spiritual  communications  of 
which  I  am  the  recipient,  I  cannot  doubt  His 
real  and  influential  personality.  Although  I 
decline  to  accept  the  representations  and  super- 
stitions of  undisciplined  minds  as  suitable  illus- 
trations of  His  character  and  His  conduct,  I  am 
not  to  be  thereby  deterred  from  regarding  Him 
as  emphatically  my  Father,  and  when  humanly 


134       THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL   GOD. 


conceived,  as  my  Friend.  Assure  me,  if  you 
will,  that  Infinity  cannot  philosophically  be  my 
Friend  and  Father;  that  the  great  Unconditioned 
Being  cannot  actually  bear  a  definite  relation 
to  my  conditioned  humanity.  Against  ,  this 
assurance  I  bring  my  most  reiined  and  elevated 
consciousness.  If  you  object  to  theological 
language,  I  will  abjure  its  phraseology:  but 
still  the  fact,  the  consciousness  of  divine  com- 
munication remains,  however  it  may  be  phrased. 
In  my  inmost  solitude,  in  my  most  complete 
retiredness,  in  my  entire  isolation  from  dog- 
mas and  systems,  from  creeds  and  customs,  in 
my  fullest  recognition  of  the  requirements  of 
logic  and  metaphysic,  in  my  most  subservient 
obedience  to  the  necessary  laws  of  thought,  I 
feel  confident  that  my  own  personality  possesses 
a  distinct  relation  to  the  Divine  personality; 
and  that  the  expansiveness  of  my  capacities  pro- 
gressively bears  a  certain,  though  an  unknown, 
and  at  present  unmeasured,  proportion  to  His 
infinity. 

Under  many  feeble  and  impoverished  con- 
ceptions of  His  presidence  and  governance  on 
the  part  of  others,  I  still  recognize  a  substratum 
of  undeniable  truth  which  beyond  and  above 
passing  forms  remains  as  an  abiding  experience. 


THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL   GOD.      135 

If  the  appeal  to  eiiligJite7ied  consciousness  be 
the  confessed  test  of  metaphysics,  it  is  equally 
and  indeed  more  strictly  the  test  of  our  experi- 
vicntal  knowledge  of  God.  We  lay  stress  upon 
the  qualification  enligJitened^  because  he  who 
does  not  seek  enlig-htenment  from  Nature  as 
well  as  from  Scriptural  Revelation,  cannot  reap 
the  full  benefits  of  all  that  is  divinely  offered  to 
him.  In  Scripture  we  have  a  personal  Jehovah, 
a  personal  Father,  an  Almighty  Friend,  pervad- 
ing all  its  history ;  dealing  indeed  with  men 
quite  anthropologically,  because  in  no  other 
way  could  the  men  of  past  ages  apprehend  him. 
If  He  there  and  then  condescends  to  reveal 
Himself  under  images  and  limitations,  which  in 
our  later  times  of  highly  educated  societies 
appear  circumscribed,  let  us  only  be  thankful 
that  we  live  in  a  period  when  such  limitations 
are  less  needful.  Yet  even  in  believers  in  the 
views  of  those  ancient  times  we  occasionally  per- 
ceive a  transcendence  of  the  conditional  anthro- 
pomorphism of  their  obscure  day.  With  a  long- 
ing though  indefinite  anticipation  of  higher 
and  future  revelations,  they  look  beyond  the 
present,  and  with  an  unspeakably  ardent  yearn- 
ing they  antedate  the  Divine  glory  that  is  to  be 
revealed   even  in  the   present    world.      They 


136       THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL  GOD. 


delight  themselves  in  the  present,  and  also 
prospectively  in  the  future.  They  are  assured 
of  the  shining  of  a  brighter  glory,  although 
they  know  that  they  must  pass  away  ere  it 
appears.  Many  doubts  hang  like  dark  clouds 
over  them,  but  they  are  nobly  confident  that 
their  posterity  will  look  on  the  sun  when  those 
clouds  have  been  dispersed.  The  great  Father 
talks  with  them,  as  it  were  face  to  face,  but  at 
the  same  time  He  points  to  the  stars  very  high 
above  them ;  and  in  like  manner  the  incompre- 
hensible Father  still  points  to  the  stars  very 
hie-h  above  us.  We  are  indeed  no  nearer  to 
them  even  now,  yet  to  us  they  shine  with  a 
brighter  light ;  we  view  them  through  more  per- 
fect instruments ;  we  have  catalogued  their 
names,  we  have  calculated  their  courses,  we 
have  observed  their  orbits,  and  we  have  heard 
some  strains  of  their  mysterious  harmony. 

In  rising  above  much  of  early  anthropo- 
morphism have  we  dispelled  human  ignorance 
of  God  as  he  is  essentially  ?  Perhaps  but  little; 
still  we  do  not  now  so  commonly  apprehend 
Him  as  a  mere  superior  Lord  and  fellow-being. 
Certainly  we  do  conceive  of  Him  as  beyond  all 
explanation  and  all  really  visible  shaping.  In 
our  modern  conceptions  He  is  more  awful,  but 


THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL   GOD.      137 

therefore  at  the  same  time  less  familiar  and 
less  sensibly  present  v/ith  us.  We  remove 
him  further  from  us  by  our  baffled  attempts  to 
apprehend  Him  ;  while  we  place  Nature  nearer 
to  us,  and  as  a  veil  through  which  we  can  bear 
to  g-aze.  We  see  more  of  effects,  and  feel  less 
of  Himself  as  the  personal  and  primary  cause. 
We  recognize  the  omnipresence  and  omnipo- 
tence of  Law,  but  lose  sight  of  the  omnipresence 
and  omnipotence  of  Love.  We  feel  more  of 
reverence,  it  may  be,  and  less  of  trusting  friend- 
ship. Our  philosophical  gains  are  compensated 
by  sensible  losses.  The  world,  the  universe,  is 
still  His,  but  He  is  less  clearly  manifest  in  all 
outward  things.  The  elements,  the  winds,  the 
storms,  the  magnificent  and  ever-changeful  phe- 
nomena of  the  scenes  in  which  we  live  are  traced 
to  physical  causes,  and  are  rightly  dissociated 
from  ideas  of  an  anthropomorphic  superintend- 
ence, from  humanly  capricious  changefulness 
and  passionate  interference.  We  mount  in  every 
successive  age  another  step  of  those  endless 
stairs  which,  ascending  from  the  level  plains, 
go  mysteriously  upwards  to  the  Throne  of  the 
Almighty.  We  look  down  and  contemn  our 
forefathers  who  placed  their  feet  only  upon  a 
lower  stair  than  ours.     We  stand  higher  and 


8     THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL   GOD. 


we  feel  prouder  ;  we  count  the  steps  by  which 
we  have  mounted,  and  we  boast  that  by  so 
many  advances  we  are  nearer  to  truth.  Alas  ! 
they  who  stood  on  the  lower  steps,  while 
inferior  in  position,  were  often  superior  in 
holiness ;  while  lower  in  place,  they  were 
loftier  in  expression.  We  may  ascend  to  the 
top  of  the  highest  mountain  and  breathe  a 
keener  air,  and  behold  a  vastly  wider  panorama 
of  form  and  beauty :  heights  which  appeared 
grand  to  our  less  instructed  forefathers  are 
dwarfed  to  us,  and  things  are  indistinct  to  us, 
which  were  impressive  to  them.  But  we  have 
gained  in  altitude  and  lost  in  power;  we  are 
scientifically  nearer  to  truth,  yet  at  the  same 
time  sensibly  further  from  God.  We  can  in- 
deed speak  of  Him,  but  our  words  are  less 
sonorous  in  the  more  rarefied  air.  Where  we 
now  are  it  is  harder  for  us  to  breathe,  and  we 
are  disinclined  to  praise.  Who  that  loves  God 
does  not  at  such  an  elevation  feel  the  beauty 
of  one  of  those  grand  hymns  of  the  Old  Hebrew 
Psalmists  which  savour  so  little  of  the  science 
of  our  day,  but  preserve  so  preciously  the  piety 
of  their  day  ?  Although  chargeable  with  an 
antique  anthropomorphism,  although  so  replete 
with  what  are  now  regarded  as  unphilosophical 


THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL    GOD.     139 

conceptions,  and  so  full  of  discarded  forms  and 
unfelt  aspirations  and  lamentations,  neverthe- 
less, who  does  not  feel  that  those  Psalmists 
worshipped  the  Divine  Father  with  a  deeper 
devoutness  and  a  more  exuberant  gladness 
of  soul,  or  besought  Him  with  a  more  sorrow- 
ing wail  of  humble  penitence,  than  we  who 
stand  high  above  them  in  knowledge,  but 
far  beneath  them  in  holy  experience  and  in 
force  and  fervour  of  expression  ?  We  are  aim- 
ing to  grasp  the  conception  of  the  Infinite,  and 
have  lost  the  sense  of  the  Personal  Father. 

Should  we  then  gain  by  returning  to  the 
unphilosophical  ignorance  of  those  inspired 
singers  ?  Ought  we  to  strive  to  retrace  our 
steps  and  to  reduce  our  conceptions  to  the 
dimensions  of  theirs  ?  No  right-thinking  man 
can  suppose  that  we  should.  But  our  constant 
and  vigorous  effort  should  be,  to  increase  our 
religious  feeling  in  due  proportion  to  our  in- 
creased knowledge.  Our  duties  are  wider  as 
our  position  is  higher.  The  eye  takes  in  more, 
and  the  heart  ought  to  feel  more.  And  as  we 
are  now  inheritors  of  an  ampler  and  an  accu- 
mulated wealth  of  ideas  and  observations,  so 
are  our  responsibilities  the  greater  and  the 
more  pressing.  The  boundaries  of  our  estate  of 


HO    THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL   GOD. 

knowledge  have  been  continually  enlarged,  and 
by  so  much  the  heavier  has  become  the  burden 
of  our  stewardship. 

It  must  be  clearly  set  before  men  that  only 
upon  the  belief  in  a  personal  God  can  any 
sound  superstructure  of  religion  be  raised. 
What  love  can  we  cherish  for  an  impersonal  uni- 
versal substance?  Before  we  can  feel  real  human 
love  for  God  we  must  assuredly  apprehend  Him 
as  love  personified.  Not  only  must  we  believe 
that  "God  is  love"  abstractedly,  but  likewise 
love  in  the  relationship  of  person.  In  like 
manner  we  cannot  fear  to  offend  Him  in  any 
other  light.  Pursue  in  thought  the  entire 
series  of  religious  acts  and  meditations  of 
which  any  human  being  is  capable,  and  they 
all  tend  towards  a  divine  person.  The  moment 
you  dissipate  that  into  infinite  extension,  at  the 
same  moment  you  dissipate  religion  into  an 
unmeaning  generality.  Send  the  galvanic 
current  of  your  thoughts  throughout  the  entire 
universe,  and  there  are  but  two  points  which 
can  meet  and  give  out  a  spark  of  light  and 
heat,  and  those  two  points  are  the  Divine  and 
the  human  personalities. 

We  are  not  chargeable  with  irrational  faith 
because   we   cannot   define   the  nature  of  the 


THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL    GOD,      141 

Divine  personality.  It  utterly  transcends  lan- 
guage, and  therefore  any  approach  to  verbal 
definitions.  In  an  ordinary  view  personality 
implies  limitations  which  cannot  exist  in  God. 
We  should  require  a  superhuman  language 
to  express  this  Divine  thing,  but  we  can  only 
ascribe  spiritual  existence,  reason,  freedom 
of  action,  knowledge,  power,  and  other  quali- 
ties to  Him  as  a  person.  Without  distinct 
personality  God  can  possess  no  comprehensible 
attributes.  Apart  from  Divine  personality, 
Justice,  Wisdom,  Love,  and  Mercy  are  inappli- 
cable names.  Infinity  is  grand  beyond  ex- 
pression, but  it  is  insufficient  to  overmaster  the 
idea  of  the  personal,  unless  its  vague  grandeur 
resembles  that  of  a  dark,  mysterious  tomb  in 
which  all  the  life  of  particularity  moulders 
away. 

It  may  be  presumed  that  the  Divine  person- 
ality is  of  so  much  higher  an  order  than  our 
own,  that  while  its  character  is  preserved,  its 
conditions  are  wholly  different.  It  must  as- 
suredly be  transcendently  higher.  It  may  be 
wholly  indescribable  in  human  language,  with- 
out being  inconceivable  by  human  thought. 
It  may  be  the  one  Eternal  Insoluble  Mystery 
— beyond   the   ken   of  men,   and   angels   and 


142     THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL    GOD. 

archangels.  It  may  be  the  dazzling  sun  ever 
luminously  veiled  within  its  own  glorious  pho- 
tosphere. Language  utterly  fails  to  expound 
it ;  but  it  certainly  exists.  It  is  a  revealed 
truth,  and  an  essential  element  of  enlightened 
consciousness.  It  is  the  bright  and  morning 
star  that  is  reflected  in  the  pure  depths  of 
every  regenerate  soul.  In  its  reflection  in  these 
depths  it  is  contracted  to  a  distinct  and  visi- 
ble image  of  that  which  we  know  to  be,  in  the 
infinite  heights  above  us,  a  vast  and  immeasur- 
able orb — immeasurable  by  any  created  under- 
standing, nevertheless  capable  of  being  reflected 
in  a  single  clear  wave. 

Let  no  man  therefore  consent  to  be  bewil- 
dered by  the  impossibility  of  representing  or 
conceiving  of  this  Divine  personality  as  really 
and  truly  infinite.  He  believes  without  con- 
scious effort  in  the  enormous  dimensions  of  a 
remote  planet,  whose  diameter  of  thousands  of 
miles  comes  within  the  few  actual  inches  of 
his  telescopic  glass.  He  beholds  with  ready 
credence  the  direct  but  infinitely  diminished 
reflex  of  an  immense  world  in  a  little  pool  at 
his  feet ;  but  he  doubts  and  despairs  of  be- 
lieving that  the  Infinite  Orb  can  be  reflected 
in  his  own  soul  as  that  which  is  truly  personal. 


THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL    GOD.     143 

Yet  this  Is  and  must  be  the  truth  which  Is  pro- 
pounded to  his  faith,  and  while  Its  difficulty 
cannot  be  evaded,  Its  reality  cannot  be  denied. 
He  who  once  allows  himself  to  be  mastered  by 
the  admitted  difficulty  sees  the  basis  of  all 
practical  religion  crumble  away.  Even  then 
he  Is  not  delivered  from  difficulty,  which  is  as 
Inherent  in  Pantheism  as  in  personal  Theism. 
Nothing  but  the  kind  of  difficulty  is  varied,  and 
he  who  rejects  the  only  possible  foundation  for  a 
practical  religion,  has  to  find  another  foundation, 
which  may  indeed  satisfy  him,  while  It  appears 
thoroughly  unsatisfactory  to  thinkers  of  at  least 
equal  vigour  and  penetration  to  his  own. 

The  idea  of  a  Divine  Impersonality  may  be 
held  in  different  forms,  and  possibly  in  some 
such  forms  as  to  lead  the  holders  of  them  to  dis- 
avow a  gross  Pantheism  ;  but  our  prime  duty 
Is  not  to  admit  the  conception  of  infinity  into 
the  mind  as  predominant  over,  and  exclusive  of 
God's  existence  In  some  personal  mode.  No  man 
who  acquaints  himself  with  the  views  of  certain 
naturalists  and  evolutionists  of  the  present  age 
can  fail  to  perceive  that  the  extinction  of  the 
idea  of  a  personal  Creator  and  Governor  of  the 
universe  is  either  complete  or  tending  to  comple- 
tion In  their  minds,  and  that  in  days  to  come 


144      THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL    GOD. 

impersonalism  may  be  more  plainly  and  authori- 
tatively proposed  to  general  acceptance  than  at 
present.  The  ultimate  object  and  the  actual  ten- 
dency of  some  increasingly  favoured  schemes  of 
naturalism,  is  to  extirpate  the  belief  in  a  specific 
Creator,  and  in  a  distinct  and  avowed  creation. 
An  infinite  power — a  kind  of  Divine  Omnipo- 
tence, may  be  admitted  as  in  accordance  with 
such  schemes,  but  the  infinity  will  always 
suppress  the  active  divinity,  and  the  result 
will  either  be  some  modification  of  Pantheism, 
or  if  we  may  employ  a  new  term  for  the  occa- 
sion, of  AntJiropotheis7n.  This  latter  is  indeed 
the  existing  outcome  of  Comte's  Positivism, 
and  the  worship  of  humanity  is  that  philo- 
sopher's highest  form  of  faith,  of  which  as  ex- 
emplified in  his  own  and  in  recent  practice,  a 
serious  consideration  is  totally  out  of  place. 
The  world  has  heard  and  read  what  the  Com- 
tean  worship  of  humanity  is,  or  if  any  one  be 
ignorant  of  it  let  him  consult  the  Catechism  of 
Positive  Religion,  of  which  an  English  version 
has  been  published,  and  likewise  the  circular 
of  M.  P.  Lafitte,  the  supposed  head  of  Posi- 
tivism. In  the  circular  for  1867  M.  Lafitte 
announces  the  death  of  Martin  Thomas, 
the  husband   of  Comte's    adopted    daughter, 


THE  INFINITE  AND  PERSONAL    GOD.      145 

and  after  stating  that  a  commemorative  service 
had  been  held,  he  announces  that  seven  years 
afterwards,  that  is  in  1874,  he  will  confer  on 
Martin  Thomas  the  Sacrament  of  Incorporation: 
By  this,  which  is  the  last  of  the  Positive  Sacra- 
ments, all  who  are  accounted  true  servants  of 
humanity  are,  seven  years  after  death,  incor- 
porated with  the  Grand  Eire.  Meantime  the 
image  of  M.  Thomas  would  be  placed  in  the 
building  consecrated  to  the  religious  meetings 
of  the  Positivists. 

In  the  foregoing  observations  no  attempt 
has  been  made  to  deny  the  inherent  difficulty 
of  realizing  the  Divine  personality  in  conjunc- 
tion with  infinity.  It  has  been  fully  and  fairly 
confessed.  The  term  personality  implies  to  us  a 
person  in  whom  as  such  there  is  the  mind  of  a 
conscious  being  with  a  bodily  form,  the  latter 
being  essential  to  the  simplest  idea  of  person- 
ality. If  we  affirm  that  God  is  incorporeal,  w^e 
seem  at  the  same  time  to  affirm  that  he  is  im- 
personal. If  we  declare  him  to  be  infinite,  we 
know  that  the  infinite  mind  transcends  the  limits 
of  any  finite  personality.  The  conclusion  must 
be  that  the  words  we  employ  entangle  us  or  do 
not  sufficiently  express  our  thoughts.  Every 
Theist  who  forms  any  conception  of  God  at- 

10 


146  THE  DIVINE  PERSONALITY, 

taclies  to  it  the  idea  of  personality.  How  we 
acquire  the  idea,  or  whence  it  originally  came 
to  man  it  is  impossible  to  decide.  Possibly  it 
is  implanted  in  his  mind  ;  possibly  it  was  origi- 
nally a  tradition  handed  down  through  the 
earliest  ages  and  derived  from  an  early  reve- 
lation. Certainly  it  is  now  a  revealed  truth, 
and  those  who  accept  it  purely  as  a  revealed 
truth  may  refuse  to  be  troubled  with  the  philo- 
sophical difficulties  associated  with  it. 

All  who  accept  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Divine  Son 
of  God  at  once  hnd  a  living  testimony  to  the 
truth  of  a  Divine  personality  in  His  sacred  in- 
carnated person.  For  them  the  difficulty  seems 
overcome,  not  by  philosophical  conciliation, 
but  by  belief  in  Him.  They  receive  and  wor- 
ship Him  as  a  person  ;  they  attribute  a  distinct 
personality  to  Him  now  that  He  is  ascended 
up  on  high,  and  all  their  thoughts,  prayers, 
and  adorations  proceed  to  Him  as  the  same 
personality,  though  in  what  form  and  under 
what  conditions  they  cannot  attempt  to  re- 
alize. 

There  are  some  feeble  aids  of  another  kind 
which  will  perhaps  assist  reflecting  minds  in 
their  endeavours  to  distinguish  the  personal 
Deity  from  the  world  He  has  created,  and  is 


THE  DIVINE  PERSONALITY.  147 

sustaining.  Such  helps  are  necessarily  derived 
from  our  present  life  and  the  objects  before  us, 
and  one  such  is  the  following,  as  it  has  pre- 
sented itself  to  the  mind  of  the  writer. 

We  contemplate  Nature  as  the  work  of  a 
great  artist.  Nature  in  its  totality  is  a  magni- 
ficent work  of  the  Divine  Artist,  who  must  ne- 
cessarily be  as  distinct  from  it  and  as  separably 
personal  in  relation  to  it,  as  must  be  any  great 
painter  from  the  picture  which  he  paints.  Let 
us  suppose  that  we  inspect  an  imposing  pic- 
ture in  the  absence  of,  and  without  personal 
knowledge  of  the  painter.  We  feel  instinctively 
that  sovie  painter  has  been  previously  present, 
and  has  painted  this  picture,  which  though 
embodying  his  very  self  as  to  his  thoughts,  is 
yet  not  himself,  but  so  distinct  from  him  that 
he  may  be  distant  by  any  space  from  it,  and 
yet  be  intimately  related  to  it. 

If  the  picture  be  an  unfinished  work,  but 
approaching  to  its  completion,  and  if  we  in- 
spect it  daily  during  its  progress  without  ever 
encountering  the  artist  himself,  still  we  feel 
quite  confident  of  his  personality,  and  watch 
the  progressive  marks  of  his  activity  continu- 
ally as  the  painting  advances.  We  trace  by 
degrees  the  conception  of  the  worker,  we  note 


148  THE  DIVINE  PERSONALITY. 


his  Silent  yet  manifest  purposes,  we  discern  his 
adaptation  of  lights  and  shades  to  an  ultimate 
harmony  of  effect.  We  see  his  very  soul  in 
the  painting,  and  in  every  part  of  the  work, 
as  much  so  as  though  we  should  see  him  face 
to  face  and  talk  with  him,  and  listen  to  his 
exposition  of  his  own  ideal,  and  witness  the 
touches  of  his  own  hand. 

In  like  manner,  he  w^ho  studies  Nature  as 
the  great  work  of  the  greatest  Artist,  he  who 
contemplates  it  daily  and  lovingly,  he  who 
stands  before  it  with  reverence  and  sympathy, 
feels  as  assured  of  the  separate  existence  and 
personal  working  of  God,  as  the  supposed  spec- 
tator of  a  great  picture.  One  can  no  more 
confound  the  work  with  the  worker  than  one 
can  confound  Raffael  or  Titian,  or  Rubens  or 
Rembrandt  with  their  wonderful  paintings. 


PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM.  149 


IX. 

PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM. 

PANTHEISM  is  essentially,  as  well  as 
-■-  etymologically,  the  opposite  to  Personal 
Theism,  for  it  postulates  that  the  Infinite  and 
Unconditioned  must  be  impersonal,  and  all  that 
is  associated  with  personality  must  be  logically 
deducted  from  the  idea  of  God.  Consequently, 
understanding  and  will,  as  we  are  conscious  of 
them,  are  detached  by  the  Pantheist.  There 
are,  indeed,  attributes  in  God,  but  they  are  not 
personal  attributes,  for  Spinoza's  definition  is 
this:  '*  God  is  an  infinite  substance,  constituted 
by  an  infinite  number  of  attributes,  infinitely  in- 
finite." A  strong  fascination  has  led  many 
minds  to  Pantheism,  and  it  is  little  known  that 
even  Leibnitz  himself  confesses  that  he  once 
*'  leant  to  the  side  of  the  Spinozists,  who,  he 
adds,  leave  to  God  nothing  but  an  infinite  im- 
potence.'* 


ISO  PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM. 

To  trace  the  rise  and  currency  of  Pantheistic 
views  is  interesting-  and  instructive.  They  are 
much  older  than  is  commonly  supposed,  and 
much  more  subtle  than  many  theologians  be- 
lieve. We  here  omit  to  dwell  upon  the  great 
oriental  systems  of  Pantheism,  which  have  de- 
luded and  still  delude  millions  of  our  race,  but 
we  briefly  revert  to  an  ancient  school  of  philo- 
sophers, the  Eleatics,  who  appear  to  have 
anticipated  modern  views  on  this  and  on  colla- 
teral subjects. 

In  this  school — whose  metaphysics  were  in- 
herited by  the  Megaric  succession — we  find 
the  principle  openly  stated  that  the  sensible 
world  is  purely  phenomenal,  accidental,  appa- 
rent ;  in  contradistinction  from  that  substantial 
world  of  Reason  which  alone  descries  the 
little  real  existence.  When  considered  by  the 
intelligence,  the  world  of  existence  becomes 
subordinated  to  the  laws  and  forms  of  intelli- 
gence ;  it  is  a  world  of  which  we  have  an  Inter- 
pretation In  our  own  reason,  there  alone,  and 
there  perfectly.  As  it  Is  the  undoubted  charac- 
ter of  these  laws  of  Intelligence  that  they  regard 
the  Necessary,  the  Unconditional,  the  Absolute, 
so  it  is  certain  that  this  absolute  thing,  thus  con- 
templated  by   intellectual    intuition — It    being 


PANTHEISM  AND   SPINOZISM.  151 

the  common  foundation  and  essential  reality  of 
all  things,  and  of  all  things  equally — cannot 
but  be  one  and  ever  identical  with  itself  Thus 
to  the  eye  of  reason  there  is  no  plurality,  no 
change.  One  Being  not  merely  supports,  but 
is  the  universe  ;  and  all  that  reveals  itself  in 
the  lower  world  of  sense  is  but  the  external 
manifestation  of  this  Absolute  Unity.  Of  any- 
thing which  that  mutable  world  includes,  it 
cannot  be  said  that  it  is — it  becomes ;  for  its 
property  is  incessant  change,  and  of  that  which 
incessantly  changes,  as  on  the  one  hand  there 
can  be  no  assured  science,  so  on  the  other 
there  cannot  be  any  true  and  proper  reality 
predicated.  It  is  in  vain  to  affirm,  with  the 
short-sighted  Ionic  school,  that  it  is  sufficient 
for  us  to  trust  the  regulated  sequences  of 
Nature ;  for  if  these  sequences  be  casual,  not 
even  the  shadows  of  science  can  regard  them ; 
if  they  be  arbitrary  but  believed  to  be  invari- 
able, this  again  is  not  science,  but  faith ;  if 
they  be  necessary  and  unalterable,  then  are 
they  what  we  affirm  them  to  be,  the  mere 
manifestations  in  the  world  of  sense  of  the 
necessary  attributes  of  a  necessary  and  eternal 
thing.  They  are,  as  it  were,  the  Absolute 
contemplated  by  the  eyes  of  sense ;    and   all 


152  PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM. 

the  scientific  reality  of  such  laws  is  only  the 
reality  of  the  Absolute  Being  that  exhibits 
itself  in  them.  The  Universe,  then,  is  One,  to 
the  total  exclusion  of  superior,  inferior,  or 
equal. 

Such  is  the  Eleatic  principle  of  unity,  and 
are  there  not  in  this  very  ancient  Greek  philo- 
sophy the  same  prevalent  ideas  as  abound  in 
much  of  modern  philosophy ;  such  as  that  of 
Schelling"  and  his  followers,  who  affirm  the 
identity  of  subject  and  object  in  that  Absolute 
Unity  of  Vv^hich  nothing  can  be  determined  ;  for 
determination  of  itself  supposes  limitation,  but 
which  the  reason  directly  contemplates  by  an 
exclusive  privilege,  and  because  it  can  in 
truth  directly  contemplate  nothing  else.* 

The  formulated  dilemma  then  of  the  Eleatics 
is  this — *' either  God  is  all  or  nothing ;  for  if 
there  be  any  reality  beyond  Him,  that  reality 
is  wanting  to  His  perfection." 

To  pass  by  the  Pantheism  of  Plotinus  and 
his  followers,  and  omitting  to  specify  its  in- 
fluence upon  the  mediaeval  scholastics,  we  only 
name  John  Scotus  Erigena  as  a  singular  in- 
stance of  the  combination  of  Pantheistic 
opinions  with  a  reputation  for  great  Catholic 

*  W.  A.  Butler's  "History  of  Ancient  Philosophy,"  1856. 


PANTHEISM  AND   SPINOZISM,  153 

sanctity.  That  once  famous,  though  now  for- 
gotten thinker,  seems  to  have  entertained  views 
almost  identical  with  those  of  later  Pantheists, 
and  to  have  maintained,  like  some  of  our  con- 
temporaries, that  God  is  unknown  and  alto- 
gether unknowable. 

We  now  proceed  to  offer  a  summary  of  the 
doctrine  of  Spinoza  respecting  God,  gathered 
from  his  works  and  his  expositors,  as  succinctly 
and  clearly  as  the  subject  will  allow. 

The  absolute  existence  is  God. — There  is  but 
one  infinite  substance,  and  that  is  God. — What- 
ever is,  is  in  God,  and  without  Him  nothing  can 
be  conceived.  He  is  the  universal  Beinof  of 
which  all  things  are  the  manifestations.  From 
Him  all  individual  and  concrete  existence  arises. 
He  is  the  sole  substance ;  everything  else  is  a 
mode,  yet  without  substance  mode  cannot  exist. 
God,  viewed  under  the  attributes  of  infinite 
substance,  is  the  natura  naturans — viewed  as  a 
manifestation,  as  the  mode  under  which  his  at- 
tributes appear,  he  is  the  natura  naturata.  He 
is  the  cause  of  all  things,  and  that  immanently 
but  not  transiently.  He  has  two  infinite  attri- 
butes. Extension  and  Thought.  Extension  is 
visible  Thought,  and  Thought  is  invisible  Ex- 
tension :  they  are  the  objective  and  subjective 


154  PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM. 

of  which  God  is  the  identity.  Every  thing  is  a 
mode  of  God's  attribute  of  extension ;  every 
iJwiigJit,  wish,  or  feeling,  a  mode  of  His  attri- 
bute of  thought.  That  Extension  and  Thought 
are  not  substances,  as  Descartes  maintained,  is 
obvious  from  this :  that  they  are  not  conceived 
per  se,  but  per  alhid.  Something  is  extended  ; 
but  what  is?  Not  the  extension  itself,  but 
something  prior  to  it,  viz.  substance.  Sub- 
stance is  uncreated,  but  creates  by  the  internal 
necessity  of  its  nature.  There  may  be  many 
existing  things,  but  only  one  existence  ;  many 
forms,  but  only  one  substance.* 

The  ordinary  acceptance  of  the  term  sub- 
stance as  something  material  may  account  for 
the  long  and  persistent. imputations  of  Atheism 

*  For  Spinoza's  doctrines  and  life,  see  "  Biographical  History 
of  Philosophy,"  by  G.  H.  Lewes.  In  the  enlarged  editions  of  this 
work  Mr.  Lewes  gives  at  length  the  words  of  the  form  of  a 
Jewish  excommunication,  which  may  have  been  pronounced 
against  Spinoza  on  his  public  expulsion  from  Judaism.  Those, 
however,  who  desire  to  study  Spinoza  systematically,  should 
peruse  the  Essays  of  Mons.  Emile  Saisset,  who  published  a 
French  version  of  the  works  of  Spinoza.  The  criticisms  upon, 
answers  to,  and  essays  relating  to  Spinoza  are  numerous,  and 
come  down  to  the  present  time.  It  is  remarkable  that  this 
short-lived  recluse,  with  apparently  no  outward  help,  should 
have  thought  out  a  system  which  has  interested  so  many  and 
such  different  minds.  A  Lutheran  minister,  Colerus,  has  left  an 
interesting  sketch  of  Spinoza's  life  and  death. 


PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM.  155 

to  Spinoza.  **' But,"  says  Mr.  Lewes,  "No 
one  could  ever  have  read  twenty  pages  of  Spi- 
noza without  perceiving  that  this  was  a  mis- 
understanding;  for  he  expressly  teaches  that 
God  is  not  corporeal,  but  that  body  is  a  mode 
of  extension.  Nay,  God  is  not  the  material 
universe ;  but  the  universe  is  one  aspect  of 
his  infinite  attribute  of  extension :  he  is  the 
identity  of  the  naticra  naturans,  and  the  natura 
natuj^ata.  It  is  a  mere  verbal  resemblance, 
therefore,  this  of  Spinozism  to  Atheism." 

Much  depends  upon  our  granting  to  Spinoza 
what  he  demands  for  the  word  substance.  He 
himself  defines  it  thus  : — "  By  substance  I  un- 
derstand that  which  is  in  itself,  and  is  conceived 
per  se  ;  that  is,  the  conception  of  which  does  not 
require  the  conception  of  anything  else  antece- 
dent to  it."  By  the  term  attribute  he  under- 
stands **that  which  the  mind  perceives  as  con- 
stituting the  very  essence  of  substance."  By 
modes  he  understands  *'the  accidents  of  sub- 
stance; or  that  which  is  something  else,  through 
which  also  it  is  conceived."  "  By  God,''  defines 
Spinoza,  *'I  understand  the  Being  absolutely 
infinite,  i.e.,  the  substance  consisting  of  infinite 
attributes,  each  of  which  expresses  an  infinite 
and  eternal  essence."     Bayle,  who  was  at  one 


156  PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM. 

time  generally  considered  to  have  refuted  Spi- 
noza, disregarded  the  philosopher's  own  defi- 
nition of  substance,  and  proceeded  to  show  that 
everything  has  a  substance  of  its  own.  Voltaire, 
suspecting  that  Bayle  did  not  quite  understand 
Spinoza's  substance,  adopts  the  following  argu- 
ment in  refutation  of  the  latter: — Spinoza  erects 
a  theory  on  the  mistaken  maxim  of  Descartes, 
that  nature  is  a  Plemcvi,  But  as  every  motion 
requires  empty  space  for  itself,  where  is  Spi- 
noza's one  and  only  substance  ?  For  how  can 
the  substance  of  a  star,  between  which  and  man 
there  is  so  vast  a  void,  be  precisely  the  sub- 
stance of  this  earth,  or  the  substance  of  a  fly 
eaten  by  a  spider  ? '' 

However  strict  in  form  and  logical  in  con- 
struction the  theory  of  Spinoza  may  appear  to 
be,  if  you  will  grant  to  him  his  premises,  yet 
he  by  no  means  satisfactorily  solves  the  prob- 
lem of  the  relation  of  God  to  the  universe.  In 
his  view,  God  is  the  infinite  substance  of  which 
bodies  and  souls  are  merely  the  modes,  and 
there  is  no  real  and  practical  distinction  be- 
tween God  and  the  universe.  We  may  conceive 
of  them  as  separate,  but  only  by  abstract  effort. 
Without  the  universe  God  is  not  a  being  pos- 
sessing determinate  existence,  but  simply  sub- 


PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM.  157 


Stance  without  its  modes,  or,  in  other  words, 
pure  and  undetermined  being.  He  is  then  con- 
ceived abstractedly  without  the  determinations 
which  to  us  make  up  His  reality  and  life.  Then, 
again,  the  universe  becomes  as  necessary  as 
God,  being  not  merely  a  manifestation  of  God, 
but  His  act  and  His  life,  and  in  effect  God 
Himself. 

We  cannot  speak  of  the  Creator  and  the  crea- 
ture consistently  with  this  philosophy,  since, 
according  to  it,  God  is  a  cause  absolutely  inca- 
pable of  going  out  of  and  beyond  itself,  for  it 
comprehends  as  a  part  of  itself  every  possible 
existence.  "God,"  says  Spinoza,  in  his  Ethica, 
**  is  the  immanent  cause  of  all  things,  not  in- 
deed the  transient  cause."  In  place  of  God 
and  the  universe  he  substitutes  his  natura  natu- 
rajis  and  natura  naturaia  ;  and  these  terms  ex- 
press the  identity  of  one  and  the  same  existence, 
though  decomposed  by  abstraction,  and  alter- 
nately regarded  as  substance  and  mode,  infinite 
and  finite,  fundamentally  undetermined  and 
determined  in  its  necessary  forms. 

Schelling,  in  laying  down  the  distinction  be- 
tween Pantheism  and  Atheism,  thus  exposes 
one  fundamental  error  : — **  God  is  that  which 
exists  in  itself,  and  is  comprehended  from  itself 


158  PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM, 

alone ;  the  finite  is  that  which  is  necessary  in 
another,  and  can  only  be  comprehended  from 
that  other.  Things  therefore  are  not  only  in 
degree,  or  through  their  limitations  different 
from  God,  but  toto  gencre.  Whatever  their  re- 
lation to  God  in  other  points,  they  are  absolutely 
divided  from  him  on  this :  that  they  exist  in 
another,  and  he  is  self-existent  or  original. 
From  this  difference  it  is  manifest  that  all  indi- 
vidual finite  things  taken  together  cannot  con- 
stitute God,  since  that  which  is  in  nature  derived, 
cannot  be  one  with  its  original,  any  more  than 
the  single  points  of  a  circumference  taken  toge- 
ther can  constitute  the  circumference,  which, 
as  a  whole,  is  of  necessity  prior  to  them  in 
idea." 

If  we  endeavour  to  form  a  clear  conception 
of  God  according  to  Spinoza,  it  must  be  owned 
that  such  a  being  is  a  mere  idol  of  reason,  and 
only  so  far  superior  to  lower  forms  of  ideality 
in  that  it  is  not  an  idol  of  sense  or  mere  imagi- 
nation. The  unique  substance  God  is  all. 
Without  this  substance  neither  the  world  nor 
man  exists.  Creation  is  a  myth,  because  what 
is,  is,  and  there  is  no  other  existence  than  God. 
A  tissue  of  contradictions  is  involved  in  the  con- 
sequences of  the  Spinozistic  idea  of  God,  who 


PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM.  159 

is  extended  and  yet  incorporeal;  who  thinks 
and  yet  has  not  understanding;  who  is  free, 
and  yet  possesses  not  will.  God  is  but  one  sub- 
sta':ce,  and  yet  is  not  a  personality.  God,  who 
is  the  most  desirable  and  the  most  to  be  loved 
of  all  beings,  is  at  the  same  time  the  unknown 
supreme.  He  is  infinite  yet  finite.  All  pro- 
ceeds from  God  as  all  has  proceeded,  and  there- 
fore all  is  good,  while  at  the  same  time  much 
is  evil — or  rather  there  are  no  such  thin^-s  as 
good  and  evil,  just  as  there  are  no  such  things 
as  beauty  and  ugliness.  Well  may  a  French 
critic  ask,  "Who  shall  unmystify  for  us  this 
chaos  ?  who  shall  explain  these  enigmas  ?  who 
shall  reconcile  these  contradictions  ?  Can  it 
satisfy  us  still  to  receive  the  monotonous  and 
derisive  affirmation,  that  all  is  one,  and  that  in 
this  all  things  conciliate  themselves.  Spinoza, 
wrote  Leibnitz,  decisively  has  pretended  to  de- 
monstrate that  there  is  but  one  substance  in  the 
universe,  but  his  demonstrations  are  pitiable 
and  unintelligible."* 

Nevertheless  the  highest  encomiums  are 
sometimes  bestowed  upon  Spinoza's  system 
as  mathematically  rigorous.     Thus  Mr.  G.  H. 

*  Nourrisson.    "  Spinoza,  et  Le  Naturalisme  Contemporain," 
£866. 


i6o  PANTHEISM  AND  SPINOZISM. 

Lewes  regards  Spinoza's  S3^stem  as  being- 
"one  of  the  most  extraordinary  efforts  of  the 
speculative  faculty  which  history  has  revealed 
to  us.  We  have  witnessed  the  mathematical 
rigour  Vv^ith  which  it  is  developed  ;  we  have 
followed  him  step  by  step,  dragged  onwards 
by  his  irresistible  logic  ;  and  yet  the  final  im- 
pression left  on  our  minds  is  that  the  system 
has  a  logical  but  not  a  vital  truth.  But," 
Mr.  Lewes  adds,  "  the  conclusions  are  re- 
pugned, refused ;  they  are  not  the  truth  the 
inquirer  has  been  seeking  ;  they  are  no  expres- 
sions of  the  thousand-fold  life,  whose  enigma 
he  has  been  endeavouring  to  solve." 

"It  is  our  firm  conviction,"  says  the  same 
critic,  "  that  no  believer  in  metaphysics  as  a 
possible  science  can  escape  the  all-embracing 
dialectics  of  Spinoza.  To  him  who  believes 
that  the  human  mind  can  know  noumena  as  well 
as  phcnoviaia — who  accepts  the  verdict  of  the 
mind  as  not  merely  the  relative  truth,  but  also 
the  perfect,  absolute  truth — we  see  nothing, 
humanly  speaking,  but  Spinozism  as  a  philoso- 
phical refuge."* 

M.  Saisset  has  made  a  careful  and  comprehen- 
sive study  of  Spinoza  and  his  system,  and  has 

*  Op.  cit.,  iii,  148 — 9, 


SPINOZISM.  i6i 


published  some  valuable  criticism  upon  it. 
He  defines  its  leading  idea  to  be  the  essential 
and  necessary  consitbstantiality — of  the  finite  and 
the  infinite — of  Nature  and  God — of  human 
persons  and  the  Divine.  The  religion  and  the 
habits  of  life  of  Spinoza  were  continual  medita- 
tion on  God,  and  he  thought  he  had  obtained 
tranquillity  and  happiness  in  his  knowledge  of 
God, — who,  as  he  declared,  is  the  One  God, 
the  only  Substance,  the  Perfect,  the  Absolute. 
Since  He  must  be  the  only  Power,  no  other 
power  can  subsist,  or  conflict  with  Him.  Men 
are  only  powers  in  and  through  His  operations 
in  them.  The  more  fully  and  freely  we  exer- 
cise ourselves  in  the  development  of  our  highest 
faculties,  the  nearer  do  we  approach  to  that 
perfection  which  consists  in  identification  with 
God.  We  shall  be  freed  from  the  impediments 
to  a  happy  life  when  we  have  risen  above  the 
objects  of  sense,  and  are,  through  reason, 
united  in  life  to  the  Infinite  and  Eternal. 

All  this  seems  good,  and  has  the  appearance 
of  religiousness.  But  then  what  is  the  charac- 
ter of  God  in  Spinoza's  system — what  does  the 
word  God  mean  in  his  conception  ?  If  God  be 
the  only  substance,  there  is  universally  but  one 
substance,  which  itself  is  God.     This  one  sub- 

II 


i62  SPINOZISM. 


Stance  or  power  has  attributes,  and  these  attri- 
butes have  modes.  The  former  are  infinite, 
the  latter  finite.  The  known  attributes  of  sub- 
stance are  extension  and  thoug-ht.  God  is 
known  to  us  as  absolute  but  incorporeal  exten- 
sion, and  absolute  but  unconscious  thought. 
The  absolute  extension  and  thought,  of  which 
God's  existence  is  the  common  ground,  are  ex- 
pressed in  persons  and  things.  These  constitute 
Nature,  and  are  the  natura  natiirata.  Absolute 
extension  and  thought,  or  the  essence  and  power 
of  nature,  are  the  iiahira  natitrans.  Though 
there  is  really  nothing  in  common  between 
these  two,  they  cannot  be  separated.  Therefore 
what  we  call  creation,  cannot  be  separated  from 
wliat  we  call  God,  because  God  is  perfect,  and 
that  which  is  perfect  cannot  be  other  than  what 
it  is.  The  universe  must  simply  be  what  it  is. 
It  was  supposed  that  by  maintaining  this  uni- 
ting conception  absolute  and  intact,  two  diffi- 
culties could  be  escaped  which  are  alleged  to 
be  so  fatal  to  the  consistency  and  completeness 
of  other  systems ;  so  that  we  neither  deny  the 
Infinite  and  religion  as  do  atheistic  materialists, 
nor  imitate  the  mystical  idealists  in  their  denial 
of  finite  persons  and  things.  But  by  conceiving 
God  and  nature  (including  material  things  and 


SPINOZISM.  163 


men  in  the  term  nature),  as  two  faces  of  one 
sole  and  self-same  existence,  God  becomes 
Nature  fastened  to  its  immanent  principle,  and 
nature  becomes  God  considered  in  the  evolution 
of  His  power.  There  is  not  on  one  side  a  soli- 
tary God,  and  on  the  other  an  isolated  universe, 
for  the  Creator  is  incessantly  incarnated  in  each 
of  His  creatures,  and  becomes  each  of  them  in 
turn.  Under  this  conception  it  may  be  said 
that  God  sleeps  in  the  mineral,  dreams  in  the 
animal,  and  wakens  into  consciousness  in  the 
man.  This  continuous  evolution  of  the  Divine 
— this  eternal  progress  in  which  Deity  passes 
through  changes  that  are  always  new — is  the 
supreme  law,  is  reality,  is  life,  in  the  view  of 
Spinoza.     Such  is  M.  Saisset's  abstract. 

Besides,  to  be  consistent,  a  Spinozist  must 
suppose  that  the  great  Substance  is  constrained 
by  law  of  some  kind  in  all  its  evolutions,  and 
tlie  same  must  be  supposed  in  any  system  of 
material  Pantheism.  Now  when  constrained  by 
law,  this  law  must  have  operated  on  substance 
from  without,  or  otherwise  substance  must  have 
bound  itself.  If  operating  from  without,  then 
there  is  a  power  above  substance.  If  substance 
bound  itself  by  law,  then  substance  is  intelli- 
gent, capable"  of  willing,  and  so  far  as  self- 


1 64  SPINOZISM. 


bound  by  law,  is  continually  willing ; — all  which 
is  contrary  to  and  destructive  of  the  hypo- 
thesis of  Spinoza. 

It  has  been  observed  that  even  Calvin  dis- 
played a  leaning  to  Pantheism ;  but  while  re- 
presenting God  as  the  absolutely  determining 
principle  of  the  world,  he  was  preserved  from 
Spinozism  in  refusing  to  represent  God  as  under 
a  necessity  of  nature  to  determine  as  he  actually 
does  determine.  Calvin,  on  the  contrary, 
maintains  that  God  is  '^  Liber um  Arbitrium,'^ 
and  thus  he  was  kept  from  Pantheism.  He 
saw  that  God  is  the  absolutely  supernatural 
being,  and  in  his  essence  separated  from  the 
world  :  the  apparent  unity  of  the  two  consisting 
solely  in  the  fact  of  the  determination  of  the 
latter  by  the  former. 

Several  interesting  particulars  of  certain 
early  followers  of  Spinoza  have  been  pub- 
lished by  Van  der  Linde,  and  the  decisive  in- 
fluence which  Spinozism  exercised  on  theolo- 
gians is  made  manifest  in  the  tenets  of  some 
forgotten  ministers  and  religious  mystics.  The 
instance  of  Pontian  Van  Hattem,  who  lived 
from  1 64 1  to  1706,  is  the  most  remarkable. 
So  influential  was  he  over  some  minds  as  to 
originate  a   heresy  called  Hattemism — which 


SPINOZISM.  165 


is  evidently  a  Spinozistic  theology.  He  af- 
firms that  the  capital  error  of  the  vulgar  is  to 
represent  God  and  man  as  separate  beings,  so 
that  man  is  made  to  exist  outside  of,  and  apart 
from  God,  and  in  like  manner,  God  apart  from 
man.  He  affirms  this  objective  idea  of  God, 
as  the  separately  perfect,  most  wise,  and  omni- 
potent being  to  be  an  idol — to  be  in  fact  Satan. 
The  true  conception  is  the  perfect  union  of 
man  by  faith  with  Christ  or  God.  The  believer 
cannot  correctly  regard  himself  as  self-com- 
plete and  self-contained,  but  only  as  a  part  of 
that  whole  of  which  Christ  is  the  head,  for 
Christ  also  is  the  foundation  of  all  existence. 
The  natural  issue  of  such  a  system  was  that 
Van  Hattem  was  led  to  assert  that  the  only 
sin  is  believing  in  sin.  Nor  on  the  same 
ground  can  there  be  any  personal  virtue. 
Such  ideas  are  a  revolt  against  the  necessity 
of  things,  which  necessity  is  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  only  sin  is  the  vulgar  idea  of  the  separate 
existence  of  God  and  man,  and  this  error  leads 
to  the  further  errors  of  personal  independence 
and  responsibility. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  trace  similar  influences 
of  Spinozism  in  certain,  once  famous  mystics, 
such  as  Eckhart,  Tauler,  and  Suso.    A  kind  of 


1 66  SPINOZISM. 


mystic  Pantheism  became  endemic  in  Holland 
and  Flanders,  and  Poiret  and  Antoinette  Bou- 
rignon  held  only  in  different  forms  a  belief  in 
the  substantial  unity  of  God  and  man.  So 
dangerous  had  Spinoza's  principle  proved  in 
its  fructification.  In  one  aspect  it  seemed  likely 
only  to  grow  outside  the  sphere  of  religion  ; 
in  another  we  find  it  vigorous  even  in  the 
higher  regions  of  enthusiasm,  and  potent  to 
contemplative  mystics  who  had  acquired  a 
reputation  for  unusual  faith.  To  trace  the 
various  ramifications  of  Spinoza's  principles 
in  different  times,  creeds,  and  countries,  would 
indeed  be  interesting,  and  also  instructive,  as 
demonstrating  how  perilous  it  is  to  depart 
from  a  clearly  conceivable  distinctness  between 
God  and  man. 

In  our  own  country  we  even  now  occasion- 
ally see  the  direct  and  paramount  influence  of 
Spinozism,  both  speculative  and  practical. 

One  instance  of  this  will  suffice.  In  a 
work  recently  published,  and  entitled  ''  Bene- 
dict De  Spinoza,  His  Life,  Correspondence, 
and  Ethics,"  Dr.  R.  Willis  notes  (p.  xxiii.,) 
as  "one  of  Spinoza's  special  claims  to  the 
consideration  of  mankind,  his  broad  assertion 
fo     the   eternal    chano-eless   character   of   the 


SPINOZISM.  167 


natural  laws  of  God,  accepted  unconditionally 
now  in  the  v/orld  of  science,  still  very  far,  it 
is  much  to  be  deplored,  from  being  admitted 
in  the  world  of  morals  and  religion.  Well 
would  it  assuredly  be  for  mankind  were  God 
preached  to  them  as  the  author  of  eternal 
changeless  and  inexorable  law,  and  neither  a 
deity  to  be  bought  off  from  his  resolves,  by  a 
price  of  any  kind,  even  the  sacrifice  of  that 
which  is  nearest  and  dearest,  as  the  Jews  of 
old  conceived  him  ;  nor  by  lip-service,  or  even 
heart-felt  repentance,  to  be  induced  to  pardon 
sin,  condone  misdeed,  and  take  the  evil-doer 
into  his  favour,  as  the  modern  Christians  hold. 
God  never  forgives  transgression." 

Spinoza  himself  in  a  letter  to  W.  Van  Bley- 
enberg,  argues  openly  for  the  nonentity  of  Sin, 
and  affirms  that  what  we  call  such  is  only  an 
imperfection,  that  it  cannot  exist  positively,  be- 
cause it  would  be  contrary  to  the  will  of  God, 
and  "  it  would  imply  great  imperfection  in  God 
could  anything  be  done  contrary  to  His  will. 
Further  he  adds,  *'  Sins,  inasmuch  as  they  in- 
dicate imperfections  only,  consist  in  nothing 
expressive  of  reality ;  and  of  this  nature  were 
the  determination  of  Adam  to  eat  of  the  fruit, 
and  his  act  of  eating." 


l68  BUDDHISM. 


Buddhism. — A  close  resemblance  may  be 
traced  between  the  systems  of  Buddha  and 
Spinoza  in  some  of  their  stronger  outlines,  and 
there  is  als^  some  similarity  between  the  two 
founders  themselves. 

According  to  modern  students  of  Buddhism 
and  its  founder,  he  early  retired  from  the  world 
and  betook  himself  to  voluntary  poverty  and 
the  elaboration  of  this  system,  until  he  died  (as 
some  say)  in  his  forty-fifth  year.  At  the  same 
age  died  Spinoza,  who  had  likewise  led  a  life  of 
voluntary  poverty  and  meditative  seclusion. 
Buddha  had  in  effect  taught  the  substantial 
unity  of  all  existence,  and  thus  destroyed  all 
human  individuality.  So  did  Spinoza.  The 
latter  indeed  supposed  the  existence  of  a  God, 
but,  as  already  shown,  not  the  God  personal, 
and  not  the  Creator.  Buddha  taught  no  God, 
but  the  practical  issue  of  both  systems  is  nearly 
the  same.  We  may  even  call  Spinozism  the 
Western  Buddhism,  and  it  is  notable  that  the 
simple  self-denying  lives  both  of  Buddha  and 
Spinoza,  though  similar  in  character,  have  in- 
dependently elicited  like  admiration  from  those 
who  denounce  their  systems.  So  true  is  this 
that  we  find  a  recent  student  and  expositor  of 
Buddhism,  namely  M.  Barthelemy  St.  Hilare, 


BUDDHISM.  169 

declares  that  with  the  single  exception  of  Jesus 
Christ,  he  finds  no  character  more  worthy  of 
admiration  than  that  of  Buddha.  Yet  this  very 
critic  strongly  exposes  the  absurdity  and  wick- 
edness of  Buddhism. 

The  Buddhists  of  Nepaul,  indeed,  suppose 
that  there  is  a  supreme  Creator  whom  they  call 
*' Adi  Buddha;"  but  in  Ceylon  the  same  term 
would  mean  ancient  or  former,  that  is,  one  who 
existed  previous  to  Buddha,  but  who  was  of 
the  same  order,  and  possessed  the  same  attri- 
butes. 

•  Assuming  the  fact  of  a  continual  succession 
of  human  transmigrations,  Gotama  Buddha 
taught  as  fundamental  truths  that  wherever 
there  is  existence  there  is  sorrow;  that  man's 
great  object  should  be  to  free  himself  from  sor- 
row by  freeing  himself  from  the  various  sequen- 
ces of  existence  ;  that  he  destroyed  himself  by 
cleaving  to  sensuous  objects;  that  only  by  free- 
ing himself  from  the  sequences  of  existence 
could  he  escape  evil  and  attain  to  Nirvana. 
This  word  is  Sanscrit  and  may  mean  the  "•  City 
of  Peace,"  but  however  it  be  Interpreted,  in  the 
Buddhist  creed  it  signifies  nonentity.  The  best 
authorities  agree  that  it  means  total  annihi- 
lation. 


I70  BUDDHISM. 


In  Buddhism  there  can  be  no  real  individual- 
ity— no  ego  ; — for  it  teaches  that  the  supremely 
happy  are  those  in  whom  the  pride  of  I  am  is 
subdued.  Things  are  not  what  they  are  com- 
monly called.  For  example,  the  aggregate  of 
a  number  of  things,  such  as  wood,  leather,  and 
brass,  is  called  a  chariot,  yet  this  is  but  a  name. 
So,  likewise,  the  aggregate  of  a  number  of 
things,  such  as  brain,  blood,  and  flesh,  is  called 
a  man,  which  also  is  a  mere  name,  for,  apart 
from  the  things  aggregated,  there  is  no  man. 
There  being,  therefore,  no  real  individuality, 
when  a  sentient  being  like  man  dies,  all  the 
elements  of  his  existence  are  broken  up  and 
pass  away,  and  exist  no  longer.  His  actions, 
however,  still  live,  and  possess  a  kind  of  po- 
tentiality. Nirvana  or  nonentity,  is  the  blessed 
end  of  all. 

Never  has  there  been  a  more  rigidly  atheistic 
system  than  this,  which  reduces  man  to  a  tem- 
porary organization,  and  refers  all  events,  and 
all  that  we  term  creation  and  existence,  to  a 
non-intelligent  power.  It  accounts  for  all  exist- 
ence without  God ;  it  requires  no  intervention 
but  that  of  Nature.  It  begins  in  non-intelli- 
gence and  ends  in  nonentity.  No  distinct  trace 
of  God  is  found  in  it  from  beginning  to  end. 


BUDDHISM.  171 


This  system  has  been  by  some  much  admired, 
partly  because  of  its  supposed  orig-inality  and 
partly  because  of  the  virtues  practised  by  its 
ascetic  devotees ;  but  it  is  really  entitled  to  no 
such  admiration,  for  under  specious  disguises 
it  is,  as  one  who  has  carefully  studied  it  says, 
''  nothing  but  a  tissue  of  contradictions,  and 
looking  only  at  its  best  side  it  may  be  affirmed 
without  calumniating  it,  that  it  is  spiritualism 
without  a  soul,  virtue  without  duty,  morality 
without  liberty,  charity  without  love,  a  world 
without  nature  and  God." 

One  ever-recurring  difficulty  in  endeavour- 
ing to  unfold  such  systems  as  Buddhism  and 
Spinozism,  or  to  exhibit  their  ultimate  tenden- 
cies, arises  from  the  incompleteness  of  the  ex- 
positions of  their  respective  founders.  We 
have  to  gather  up  their  systems  from  frag- 
mentary statements,  from  imperfect  and  par- 
tial and  separate  expositions.  Hence,  at  any 
stage  a  partisan  may  start  up  and  say — 
"  Sakya-Muni  did  not  say  this,  or  Spinoza 
did  not  say  that.  The  one  or  the  other  is 
inaccurately  explained  by  you ;  in  this  re- 
spect or  in  that  you  misapprehend  his  mean- 
ing." In  reply  to  such  objections  it  can  only 
be  said  when  propounders  of  systems  declare 


172  BUDDHISM 


them  only  piecemeal,  and  explain  their  views 
themselves  only  partially  and  progressively, 
leaving  much  to  conjecture,  and  carefully 
guarding  them  by  reserve,  against  opposi- 
tion and  confutation,  giving  forth  portion  by 
portion,  position  by  position,  the  baffled 
expounder  is  justified  in  making  the  best  he 
can  out  of  an  incoherent  and  uncompacted 
mass  of  materials,  and  must  not  be  blamed 
for  misapprehension. 


SPINOZA   AND  LEIBNITZ.  173 


X. 

SPINOZA  AND  LEIBNITZ:  THE  SIGNIFICANCE 
OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL, 

T  T  AD  it  not  been  for  a  passage  in  one  of 
^  -^  the  letters  of  Leibnitz,  it  would  not  have 
been  known  to  us  that  he  and  Spinoza  met 
once  or  oftener,  and  conversed  for  several 
hours  on  philosophic  subjects.  Such  meetings 
would  indeed  be  a  good  subject  for  a  philoso- 
phical artist,  who  could  fitly  and  expressively 
depict  a  humble  Dutch  chamber,  poorly  fur- 
nished, at  the  Hague,  with  two  men  engaged 
in  earnest  but  calm  conversation.  One  is  a 
swarthy,  slender,  olive -complexioned,  con- 
sumptive Jew,  and  is  of  Spanish  aspect ; 
having  well-formed  features,  penetrating  eyes, 
and  dark  hair,*  who  spends  nearly  all  his  time 

*  Some  of  these  particulars  of  Spinoza's  person  are  from 
Leibnitz's  brief  notice.  It  is  uncertain  how  often  Leibnitz  visited 
Spinoza ;  we  can  be  sure  only  of  the  one  visit  here  mentioned. 


174  SPINOZA   AAW  LEIBNITZ. 

solitarily  in  this  forlorn  apartment.  What 
little  money  he  requires  for  absolute  necessities 
he  earns  by  polishing  lenses  ;  yet  he  needs 
very  little,  for  he  lives  whole  days  on  milk 
soup,  with  an  occasional  pot  of  beer,  or  a  pint 
of  thin  wine.  He  indulges  in  no  luxury  except 
a  tobacco  pipe ;  in  no  amusement  but  that  of 
seeking  out  spiders,  which  he  brings  together 
for  battle;  or  throwing  flies  into  a  spider's  web, 
and  contemplating  the  mortal  struggle  of  the 
insects  with  a  philosophical  pleasure,  which 
sometimxCS  expresses  itself  in  loud  laughter. 
Yet  this  man's  poverty  was  voluntary,  for  he 
courteously  declined  the  offer  of  a  large  sum  of 
money  from  a  friend  who  desired  to  see  him 
live  in  comfort.  Nor  would  he  allow  the  same 
friend  to  bequeath  his  property  to  him,  but 
declared  that  it  ought  to  go  to  his  friend's 
natural  heir.  He  was  a  Pantheist,  but  yet  not 
a  profligate,  nor  was  he  irreligious,  but  most 
religious  after  his  own  fashion.  *'  Does  Jie  cast 
off  religion,"  inquired  Spinoza  on  one  occasion, 
*'who  rests  all  he  has  to  say  on  the  subject  on 
the  ground  that  God  is  to  be  acknowledged  as 
the  Supreme  Good,  that  He  is  with  entire  single- 
ness of  soul  to  be  loved  as  such,  and  that  in 
loving  God  consists  our  highest  bliss,  our  best 


SPINOZA   AND  LEIBNITZ.  175 

privilege,  our  most  perfect  freedom  ;  that  the 
reward  of  virtue  is  virtue  itself,  and  the  punish- 
ment of  meanness  is  baseness  of  spirit."  Never- 
theless, his  devoutness  seems  to  influence  him 
rather  in  spite  of  his  system  than  as  the  fruit  of 
it.  He  reveres  God  in  name  ;  but  while  he 
preserves  His  name  he  abolishes  His  distinct 
personality.  How  can  an  individual  man  intelli- 
g-ently  worship  the  God  whom  he  refuses  to 
individualize,  and  with  whom  he  is  abstractedly 
bound  up  in  one  universal  substance  ? 

The  opposite  of  Spinoza  in  ultimate  philoso- 
phical and  religious  tendencies,  though  at  one 
time  confessedly  inclining  to  his  doctrine,  is 
the  middle-sized,  prosperous-looking  German 
who  now  visits  him,  and  converses  with  him 
for  some  hours.  A  faithful  record  of  that  con- 
versation would  have  been  precious  indeed,  but 
all  we  know  of  it  is  that  Spinoza  failed  to  see 
the  force  of  some  arguments  urged  upon  him 
by  his  visitor.  They  parted  never  to  meet 
again.  Spinoza  lived  only  for  a  short  time 
afterwards,  attenipting  to  perfect  his  system  of 
Pantheism.  He  died  in  his  forty-fifth  year, 
probably  in  the  same  poor  room  wherein  he 
had  talked  with  Leibnitz,  and  during  the 
absence  at  church  on  a  certain  Sunday  of  the 


176  SPINOZA   AND  LEIBNITZ. 

humble  family  In  whose  house  he  lodged,  and 
with  whom  he  was  sometimes  pleased  to  talk 
as  a  friend  and  counsellor.  Who  in  that  house 
and  at  that  time  could  have  supposed  that  this 
impoverished  spectacle-maker  had  been  writing 
books  which  were  to  be  the  subject  of  earnest 
controversy,  and  to  make  his  name  known  over 
half  of  Europe  ?  How  could  this  be  suspected 
when  most  of  his  works  were  unpublished,  and 
appeared  only  in  1667,  a  few  months  after  his 
death,  under  the  obscure  title  of  "  B.  B.  S. 
Opera  Posthuma."  He  had  Indeed  published 
one  work  seven  years  before,  but  the  storm  of 
objections  which  it  raised  deterred  him  from  a 
second  and  similar  venture. 

Yet  this  passing  German  visitor  became  his 
avowed  philosophical  opponent.  While  the  Jew 
of  the  Hague  laboured  in  his  studious  solitude 
to  excogitate  a  logical  system  wherein  the  uni- 
verse, including  God  and  man,  is  but  one  vast 
consubstantiated  existence,  in  which  individu- 
ality is  merged  in  a  necessary  unity,  the  Saxon 
metaphysician  aimed  to  elaborate  an  equally 
vast  and  all-embracing  system,  which,  though 
thrown  out  to  the  public  piecemeal,  may  yet 
be  gathered  from  his  philosophical  works  when 
studied  collectively,  and  which  strives  as  clearly 


LEIBNITZ  AND  MONADOLOGY.  177 

to  establish  individuality  as  Spinoza  did  to  ex- 
tinguish it. 

Leibnitz  sought  to  give  to  his  philosophy  a 
mathematical  strictness  and  certainty,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  reconcile  its  doctrines  with 
those  of  theology.  By  him  the  universe  is  con- 
templated in  the  threefold  relation  of  (i)  its 
elements  ;  (2)  their  manner  of  connection  ;  and 
(3)  the  end  of  their  combinations.  He  names 
the  doctrine  of  elements  7nonadolopie.  He  held 
the  mutual  relations  of  these  elements  to  be  de- 
veloped in  a  pre-established  harmony ;  while 
he  represented  the  final  end  of  creation  to  be 
Optimism.  In  his  view  the  amazing  variety  of 
compound  material  bodies,  by  which  we  are 
surrounded,  implies  the  existence  of  elements, 
of  which  these  compounds  are  the  results,  and 
the  nature  of  these  elements  is  to  be  ascertained 
according  to  the  laws  of  thought.  By  applying 
his  fancied  principle  of  the  Sufficient  Reason,  it 
may  be  demonstrated  that  matter  can  consist 
neither  of  parts  which  are  infinitely  divisible,  nor 
of  atoms  possessed  of  figure  and  extension.  Its 
elements,  therefore,  must  be  simple,  unextended 
forces,  or  Monads,  in  which  we  obtain  the  d 
priori  idea  of  substance.  The  individuality  of 
these  monads  must  consist  in  the  different  series 

12 


178  LEIBNITZ  AND  MONADOLOCY. 

of  internal  change  through  which  each  one 
passes  in  the  course  of  its  existence.  In  these 
series  each  successive  change  is  termed  a  Per- 
ception, and  every  monad  is  a  living  mirror, 
giving  forth,  after  its  own  fashion,  a  picture  of 
the  universe,  which  is  thus  one  vast  collection 
of  spiritual  forces.  These  necessary  elements 
of  concrete  existence  cannot  all  be  reduced  to 
one  class  or  order,  but  are  distinguished  by 
different  degrees  of  perception  and  active 
power.  Some  are  destitute  of  conscious  per- 
ception, and  these  are  the  elements  which  form 
the  material  world.  The  animating  principle 
of  the  lower  animals  comes  next ;  and  then  the 
self-conscious  souls  of  men,  containing  in  them- 
selves the  fountains  of  necessary  truth.  These 
three  classes  of  created  forces  or  substances 
must  have  a  sufficient  reason  for  their  existence. 
There  cannot  be  an  infinite  series  of  contingents, 
and  if  there  could  be,  still  the  final  reason,  even 
if  such  were  infinite  series,  could  be  found  only 
in  a  necessary  substance.  In  this  way  creation 
must  involve  the  existence  of  One  Supreme  In- 
finite, the  nionas  mo7tadu7Jt,  from  whom  all  that  is 
finite  has  been  derived,  and  in  whose  existence  it 
all  finds  its  due  explanation.  God,  who  is  this 
Supreme  Substance,  is  the  fountain  of  all  reality; 


LEIBNITZ  AND  MONADOLOGY.  179 

and  the  attributes  of  the  created  monads,  as  far 
as  they  are  perfect,  result  from  the  perfection  of 
God  Himself ;  as  far  as  they  are  imperfect,  from 
the  necessary  imperfection  of  the  creature. 

In  respect  of  the  mutual  relations  of  the 
elementary  forces  of  creation,  as  the  monads 
cannot  have  either  figure  or  extension  in  them- 
selves, their  co-existence  and  relations  must 
sufficiently  account  for  the  phenomena  of  exten- 
sion, duration,  and  body.  Thus  space  and  time 
have  merely  an  ideal  and  relative  existence,  re- 
sulting from  the  relation  of  monads,  regarded  as 
co-existing  or  in  succession.  God  "  in  the  begin- 
ning "  launched  the  elements  into  being,  having 
resolved  for  each  one  of  them  a  determinate 
history  throughout  eternity,  and  a  history  which 
should  harmonize  with  that  of  every  other  one. 
From  the  given  state  of  any  monad  at  any 
time,  the  Eternal  Geometer  can  find  the  state 
of  the  universe,  past,  present,  and  to  come. 
The  apparent  action  of  finite  monads  upon 
each  other  is  not  the  result  of  mere  intercausa- 
tion,  but  of  that  original  harmonious  arrange- 
ment of  God,  in  virtue  of  which  He  secures 
without  failure,  those  ends  which  he  contem- 
plated when  the  universe  came  from  His  hands. 
The  phenomena  attendant  upon  the  union  of 


i8o  LEIBNITZ  AND  MONADOLOGY. 

soul  and  body — of  the  self-conscious  monads 
and  the  related  monads  of  an  inferior  order, 
are  counted  as  capable  of  explanation  on  the 
same  general  principle.  The  successive  changes 
of  the  soul  must  exactly  tally  with  those  of  the 
body,  yet  without  any  mutual  action.  They 
are  related  as  two  clocks,  of  which  the  one 
points  to  the  hour  exactly  as  the  other  strikes ; 
or  else  as  separate  parts  of  the  same  clock.* 

Upon  the  end  of  this  combination  of  monads 
it  is  sufficient  to  add  that  the  pre-established 
harmony  is  a  revelation  of  Divine  perfection  in 
a  scheme  of  Optimism.  Every  possible  uni- 
verse was  conceived  in  the  mind  of  God  from 
eternity  ;  but  as  cne  of  these  only  can  be  trans- 
lated from  potential  into  actual  existence,  that 
one  must  be  the  best :  although  this  best  uni 
verse  includes  moral  and  natural  evil  in  itself, 
the  latter  is  the  harmonious  consequent  of  the 
former,  and  a  reaction  against  it.  The  mystery 
of  sin  is  not  to  be  explained  by  the  resolution 
of  evil  into  good,  for  sin  is  essentially  evil. 
But  sin  is  necessarily  involved  in  the  idea  of 
this  best  possible  of  universes,  which  it  is  better, 
notwithstanding  its  evil,  to  translate  out  of  the 
possible  into  the  actual,  than  to  have  no  uni- 
•  North  British  Review,  No.  IX.,  article  "  Leibnitz." 


LEIBNITZ  AND  MONADOLOGY.  i8i 

verse.  Thus  the  created  universe  must  be  the 
harmony  of  one  great  theocracy,  expressive  of 
the  attributes  of  the  one  Perfect  Being-. 

Brief  and  inadequate  as  this  epitome  is,  it  is 
sufficient  to  show  the  main  object  of  Leibnitz, 
viz.,  to  refute  Pantheism  by  Monadology, — and 
to  indicate  the  metaphysical  and  moral  relations 
of  the  Divine  Being  with  the  universe  as  His 
creation  ;  and  it  is  here  noticed  as  an  elaborate 
scheme  of  individualism  in  opposition  to  all  lead- 
in  e  to  the  extinction  of  the  individual.  However 
illusory  it  may  be,  it  is  unquestionably  more 
acceptable  than  Spinozism,  and  at  least  equally 
well  constructed.  Indeed  as  a  mere  philo- 
sophical structure  it  may  claim  our  consider- 
ation and  admiration  while  we  have  fears  for  its 
stability.  It  may  be  resolvable  into  idealism, 
and  there  may  be  truth  in  the  objection  that  "  by 
his  subtle  process  of  reasoning,  Leibnitz  virtually 
excludes  the  possibility  of  an  external  world. 
The  last  result  of  his  analysis  is  a  created 
aggregate  of  unextended  spiritual  forces,  of 
various  orders,  of  which  the  mutual  rela- 
tions, as  collocated  in  bodies,  originate  the 
phenomena  of  the  visible  creation.  The  de- 
monstrative metaphysic  of  Leibnitz  has  parted 
with  body  and  extension  before  it  has  resolved 


i82      SIGNIFICANCE   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 


nature  into  its  elements  ;  while  the  experimental 
philosophy  of  Berkeley  fails  to  extract  from  the 
phenomena  of  perception  the  evidence  of  a 
substance  different  in  kind  from  the  self-conscious 
spirit  which  perceives  them.  Nevertheless  we 
could  name  at  least  two  German  philosophers 
of  very  recent  date  and  considerable  influence, 
who  are  disposed  to  place  faith  in  the  Mona- 
dology  of  Leibnitz,  and  to  think  it  worthy  of 
serious  study. 

What  we  have  to  maintain  as  a  superstructure 
upon  our  present  and  conscious  personality  as 
men  is — the  significance  of  every  individual 
of  our  race.  This  is  both  natural  and  moral ; 
— natural  in  relation  to  surrounding  nature 
simultaneously  existing  with  us,  and  moral  in 
relation  to  our  spiritual  existence  present  and 
future.  Blot  out  the  ;//^r«/,  and  man  is  merely 
a  superior  animal,  and  significant  only  in  pro- 
portion to  his  structural  and  social  superiority  to 
the  varions  living  creatures  of  his  era.  Blot 
outthe  ?/(^///r(^/signiflcance  of  individual  man  and 
the  moral  seems  to  want  a  basis — combine  the 
two  and  you  have  his  twofold  pre-eminence, 
the  one  visible,  the  other  inwardly  conscious. 

No  philosophical  scheme  can  be  held  con- 
sistently with  Christianity  which  does  not  admit 


SIGNIFICANCE   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL.       183 

and  support  our  individual  significance  ;  for  our 
idea  of  responsibility,  of  future  judgment,  of  a 
high  and  conscious  immortality — in  short,  all 
our  hopes  and  joys  are  built  upon  this  founda- 
tion ;  and  therefore  it  is  assumed  and  enforced 
in  Holy  Scripture.  Limit  man  to  a  mere  natural 
significance,  and  we  flutter  for  a  time  and  then 
fall  like  the  fowls  of  the  air.  But  "•  ye  are 
of  more  value  than  many  sparrows,'' — although 
both  bird  and  man  are  cared  for  by  the  paternal 
Provider.  And  our  significance  is  individual 
in  its  strictest  sense,  for  it  is  undivided  and  in- 
divisible. It  springs  up  into  existence  in  time, 
it  spreads  and  grows  out  with  all  eternity.  It 
is  personal  responsibility  allied  to  personal 
identity.  That  something  undefinable  by  us 
in  words,  but  of  which  we  are  continually 
conscious — that  identity  which  every  man  is 
confident  he  possesses  in  the  midst  of  all  sur- 
rounding changes  ; — that  one  fixed  central 
point  around  which  the  whole  circumference  of 
things  turns  in  relation  to  self;  yes,  that  one 
thing  is  intimately  associated  with  our  indi- 
vidual significance  for  all  time  and  all  states  of 
being.  The  Almighty  Father  in  the  highest 
sense  manifests  individual  significance  to  every 
individual   creature,  while  He  has  created  us 


1^4       SIGNIFICANCE   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 

to  possess  an  individual  significance  in  relation 
to  Him.  He  is  the  central  sun,  which  divinely 
and  diversely  radiates  light  and  heat  to  every 
one  of  his  creatures  who  star-like  revolve  around 
him.  Confound  them  with  him — consubstanti- 
ate  your  substance  with  his,  and  there  can  be 
no  distinct  system  of  divine  and  human  beings, 
for  in  such  case  you  make  sun  and  stars  to  be 
one  and  the  same  ;  you  destroy  all  significance 
of  separate  courses  or  orbits.  There  can  be 
nothing  of  diverse  natures  when  all  is  lost  in  one 
central  and  universal  substance. 

There  is  a  place  and  purpose  marked  out  for 
every  man  by  his  Creator,  and  the  manner  in 
which  action  and  feeling  are  developed  in  him 
in  relation  to  a  particular  place  and  purpose, 
constitute  the  significance  of  his  individuality. 
An  analogical  illustration  of  this  truth  may  be 
drawn  from  a  theory  which  Mr.  Darwin  has  re- 
cently proposed  as  a  provisional  hypothesis  to 
account  for  certain  observed  phenomena,  under 
the  name  of  Pangenesis.  He  assumes  that  the 
germ-cells  of  animals  and  plants  are  capable  of 
generatingminute  bodies,  named  cell-gemmules, 
which  become  diffused  through  all  parts  of  an 
organism,  and  are  capable  of  multiplying  and 
unitingwith  others  like  themselves,  and  that  when 


SIGNIFICANCE   OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL.       185 

this  union  does  not  take  place,  they  may  remain 
in  a  dormant  state.  In  this  state  they  may  be 
compared  to  seeds  lying  dormant  in  the  earth, 
and  such  cell-gemmules  may  remain  unde- 
veloped for  many  generations.  The  number 
of  cell-gemmules  in  an  undeveloped  embryo 
may  be  almost  infinite  in  number,  but  each  one 
has  a  potential  development.  At  one  time,  it 
v/as  thought  a  microscopic  cell  was  quite 
small  enough  for  our  observation  and  theori- 
zing ;  but  now  we  are  called  upon  in  addition  to 
imagine  that  there  are  numerous  minuter  mole- 
cules in  each  germ  or  ovule,  in  which  the 
characteristics  of  remote  progenitors  may  be 
always  present  and  some  day  powerful. 

Here  then,  whether  Pangenesis  shall  be 
proved  by  further  observation  to  be  a  truth,  or 
a  mere  imagination, — here  at  least  we  have  an 
available  suggestion  in  relation  to  our  present 
doctrine.  In  every  man  morally  viewed  there 
maybe  a  Spiritual  Pangenesis.  He  may  be  created 
not  simply  as  a  natural  individual,  like  any  one 
of  the  inferior  animals  which  he  beholds  ;  but  he 
may  be  primarily  endowed  with  an  almost 
infinite  number  of  germs  which  may  lie  dor- 
mant in  him  for  centuries  of  his  existence. 
Yet  each    one  of  these  numberless  gemmules 


1 86  SPIRITUAL  PANGENESIS. 

may  carry  with  it  a  particular  potentiality  of  un- 
limited development — may  carry  such  potenti- 
ality through  death  and  the  grave,  and  though 
lying  dormant  there  yet  not  be  dead.  Each 
gemmule  may  mysteriously  enfold  some  princi- 
ple of  the  individual  which  imparts  to  him  a 
distinct  personality  ;  thousands  of  such  gem- 
mules  may  preserve  and  impart  his  entire 
personality  to  the  man,  and  in  them  may  lie 
sleeping  his  individual  significance  through 
ages  of  eternity.  If  through  centuries  of  earthly 
time  an  unsuspected  and  invisible  gemmule 
preserves  for  the  body  hereditai  y  characteristics 
of  a  remote  progenitor  ;  if  in  human  suc- 
cessions there  be  present  some  such  physio- 
logical persistence  as  this  ;  surely  it  is  not 
unnatural  to  presume  that  there  is  a  spiritual 
persistence  of  a  like  kind.  Every  part  of  the 
human  body  periodically  changes,  but  yet  the 
gemmules  are  supposed  to  remain  in  being 
through  all  corporeal  changes.  The  forces  of 
Nature  do  not  destroy  them;  they  are  unharmed 
by  the  powers  of  chemistry,  and  invulnerable  to 
all  the  quick  agents  of  decay  which  abound  in 
air,  and  sea,  and  earth.  Where  then  is  the  im- 
probability of  a  perpetual  individual  signifi- 
cance founded  upon  undeveloped  and  inherent 


SPIRITUAL  PANGENESIS,  187 

germs,  and  developed  in  successional  lines 
through  incalculable  periods  ?  The  human  totality 
may  carry  with  it  its  mysterious  multitude  of 
thought  germs,  and  wherever  and  whenever 
some  one  or  more  of  these  becomes  operative 
and  powerful,  a  wonderful  growth  and  unfold- 
ing may  take  effect,  which  may  prolong  and 
continue  the  significance  of  an  individual  who 
once  dwelt  for  a  few  years  upon  this  earth, 
little  knowing  at  that  time  his  unbounded 
capacities  for  the  growth  of  good — or  alas,  it 
may  be — of  evil ! 

A  remarkable  distinctive  feature  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  the  Gospel  of  Grace, 
is  the  significance  therein  of  every  individual 
of  our  race.  If  we  look  at  man  apart  from  his 
relation  to  God,  and  his  possible  participation 
in  the  Gospel  personally  revealed  by  Jesus 
Christ,  he  seems  to  possess  no  marked,  and 
certainly  no  abiding  significance.  The  Ministry 
of  Nature  to  man  is,  not  one  of  Grace  but  of 
Law.  By  nature  man  stands  structurally  highest, 
intellectually  noblest ;  but  if  he  have  no  su- 
periority beyond  that  of  structure  and  natural 
capability,  he  must  inevitably  pass  away  into 
the  ultimate  insignificance  of  all  that  is  of  the 
earth  earthy.     For  of  all  the  enormous  mass  of 


iS8   SIGNIFICANCE   OF  MAN  IN  THE  FUTURE. 

extinguished  vitality  which  composes  the  sub- 
strata upon  which  man  now  walks  and  labours, 
no  fossil  creature  ever  possessed  more  than  the 
simple  significance  of  its  little  hour  and  partial 
relationship  to  its  kind.  When  its  life  was  over, 
it  went  Into  dust,  and  now  takes  its  place  only 
in  the  constituency  of  earth  and  the  chronology 
of  ancient  existences. 

The  same  holds  true  of  the  human  race  apart 
from  Its  possible  becomings  in  the  Divine 
economy  of  Grace.  Substract  these  possibilities, 
and  the  history  of  ancient  man  is  simply  geo- 
logical or  historical — simply  his  relation  to 
prehistoric  or  else  historic  times.  And  this 
kind  of  history  is  that  of  races,  not  of  Indi- 
viduals :  it  Is  the  significance  of  the  genus  not 
of  the  Individual.  Millions  of  mankind  may 
have  lived,  and  probably  have  lived  on  this 
earth,  of  whom  we  know  nothing,  and  at  present 
possess  not  a  relic.  They  may  or  may  not 
have  flourished  before  or  shortly  after  the  great 
Glacial  Period.  We  may  conjecture  or  deny 
their  existence  ;  we  may  speculate  on  the  possi- 
bility of  their  living,  or  on  the  probability  of 
their  sudden  destruction  by  the  cold  desolation 
of  a  reign  of  life-destroying  Ice.  To  our 
knowledge  the    result   of  their    existence    In 


SIGNIFICANCE   OF  MAN  IN  THE  FUTURE.    189 

incalculable  ages  of  the  geological  past  is  of 
no  value  except  as  a  question  of  scientific  dis- 
cover}^ and  climatic  relation.  The  great  glacial 
winter  was  the  same  in  all  its  intensity  and 
rigidity  whether  man  felt  it  or  felt  it  not. 

The  essential  difference  lies  in  the  existence 
of  man  as  known  to  us  in  the  Kingdom  of  Grace, 
and  contemplated  by  us  as  an  immortal  being 
destined  to  the  everlasting  enjoyment  or  loss 
of  God's  favour.  Jesus  Christ  saw  and  taught 
the  vastly  superior  importance  of  man  as  based 
upon  his  individual  significance.  He  saw  man 
not  merely  as  he  was,  but  as  he  might  be,  and 
as  he  would  be.  Think  only  of  the  helpless 
cripple,  the  wretched  outcast,  the  blind  and  the 
palsied,  the  suffering  and  the  sinful,  the  poor 
fisherman  and  the  humble  mechanic  as  they 
are,  and  as  they  will  be  in  a  few  years  of  misery 
and  obscurity;  and  what  are  they  more  than  the 
worm  that  crawls,  the  insect  that  hums  away  its 
hour,  and  the  bird  that  falls  an  easy  prey  to 
the  fowler?  Take  them  in  the  unsightly  and 
corrupting  mass,  and  what  is  earth  the  worthier 
for  them,  what  are  they  the  better  for  earth  ? 
For  a  time  they  cumber  the  ground,  and  then 
the  ground  covers  them.  Of  whole  generations 
of  such  human  beings,  it  can  only  be  said  as 


I90   SIGNIFICANCE  OF  MAN  IN  THE  FUTURE. 

of  old,  *'  Like  sheep  they  are  laid  in  the  grave  ; 
death  shall  feed  on  them.'^ 

On  the  other  side,  contemplate  all  these 
beings  as  having  a  personal  and  endless  signi- 
ficance in  the  eyes  of  their  Creator ;  each  one 
as  possessing  in  himself  the  germ  of  an  eternal 
unfolding  of  life  and  character,  every  germ 
known  and  appreciated  by  Him  who  imparted 
it — all  its  possibilities  foreseen, — all  its  actu- 
alities anticipated.  Contemplate  man  thus, 
and  temporal  distinctions  pass  into  nothing. 
Man  is  man,  not  in  his  pomp  or  in  his  poverty, 
not  in  his  vigour  or  in  his  infirmity,  but  he  is 
man  in  the  countless  contingencies  of  his  ever- 
lasting being.  He  is  man  in  his  capability  of 
rescue  from  death  of  the  spirit ;  man  in  his  rela- 
tion to  the  Redeemer  of  his  race ;  man  in  his 
opportunity  of  restoration  to  God  ;  man  not  as 
clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  or  in  rags  and 
shame,  but  man  as  one  day  to  be  '*  clothed 
upon"  with  garments  beyond  the  fabrication  of 
his  own  hand  ;  to  be  clothed  with  a  deathless 
life  and  unaging  incorruption. 

The  spiritual  significance  of  every  one  of  us 
constitutes  his  heritage  in  Jesus  Christ.  In 
this  lies  his  individual  importance,  that  Christ 
died  for  him  as  thouorh  he  were  all,  and  for  all 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  MAN  IN  THE  FUTURE.   191 

our  race  as  though  they  all  were  one.  In  this 
too '  lies  the  unspeakable  blessing-  that  every 
one  of  us  may  feel  his  particular  significance  to 
God  in  Christ.  Death-doomed  dust  as  we  all 
are  by  nature,  we  are  by  divine  favour  in  a 
higher  sense,  deathless,  and  our  deathlessness 
will  confer  importance  upon  what  would  be 
naturally  insignificant.  When  I  regard  with 
astonishment  the  perfection  of  parts  in  the 
minute  polyzoon  under  the  microscope,  and 
when  I  see  it  perishing  even  while  under  ob- 
servation, I  lament  its  loss  and  wonder  why 
such  beauty  of  form  and  such  marvellously 
adapted  vital  mechanism  should  be  so  frail, 
and  so  elusive.  But  were  I  to  suppose  for  a 
moment  that  the  race  to  which  I  belong,  is 
only  by  so  much  the  more  complex  in  organiza- 
tion as  I  find  it,  and  so  much  the  longer  in 
duration  as  I  see  it,  and  yet  nothing  more, 
nothing  higher,  nothing  nobler  than  earthly 
clay  ;  I  should  more  bitterly  mourn  over  his 
loss  than  over  that  of  all  the  marvellous 
creatures  in  the  inferior  kingdoms  of  nature,  and 
I  should  mourn  over  man  the  more  bitterly  in 
proportion  to  his  bodily  superiority  and  his  far 
higher  intellectual  capacity.  When,  however, 
I  superadd  his   future   hopes   to   his    present 


192  PANTHEISM  AND   OPTIMISAl. 


superiority,  he  transcends  the  dominion  of  out- 
ward nature  and  becomes  a  child  of  God  and 
an  inheritor  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

Pantheisvi  and  Opiiviism. — If  we  reluctantly 
decline  to  accept  the  Optimism  of  Leibnitz,  we 
decidedly  reject  the  pessimism  of  Spinoza.  If 
we  seriously  doubt  whether  we  live  in  the  best 
possible  of  all  worlds,  we  altogether  deny  that 
we  live  in  the  worst.  And  a  worse  world  than 
that  of  Spinozism  it  is  difficult  to  conceive, 
unless  it  be  one  of  avowed  and  complete 
Atheism.  The  difference  indeed  is  only  small, 
and  chiefly  verbal,  in  any  form  of  material 
Pantheism.  As  already  stated,  Spinoza  himself 
was  not  without  a  God  and  a  religion  of  his  ov/n 
fashion  ;  insomuch  that  he  has  been  called  the 
God-intoxicated  philosopher.  He  was  indeed, 
in  one  sense,  full  of  God,  since  his  God  was  all 
fulness  and  all  existence.  But  the  grandeur 
with  which  he  seems  to  invest  his  God  was 
vague  and  visionary,  and  to  agree  with  him  in  his 
conclusions  we  have  to  condone  his  petitio 
principii  respecting  Substance.  We  do  not 
allow  that  all  substance  is  one  ;  there  may  be 
innumerable  substances  or  modes  of  substance. 
In  the  world  of  spirits  who  will  believe  that  all 
subvStance  is  one  ?     In  that  world  there  may  be 


THE  SOUL  IN  PANTHEISM.  193 

grade  after  grade  of  spiritual  substance,  almost 
infinite  kinds  of  corporeality,  as  well  as  another 
mode  of  personality. 

Pantheism,  then,  is  radically  and  resultingly 
unsound.  Spinozism  is  unsound  in  its  logical 
root,  and  unhealthy,  as  well  as  unchristian,  in 
its  practical  fruit.  All  the  momentous  conse- 
quences of  individual  significance  are  lost  in 
its  cold  grasp.  The  human  soul  is  in  each  man's 
esteem  the  most  invaluable  of  his  possessions, 
but  upon  Spinoza's  system,  man  is  merely  a 
soul  united  to  a  body.  As  a  soul,  he  is  a  mode 
of  the  thought  of  God.  As  a  body,  he  is  a 
mode  of  his  extension.  Man  is  the  identity  in 
God  of  the  human  soul  and  the  human  body. 
The  human  soul  is  nothing  but  a  mode  of  that 
Divine  substance.  So  in  another  way  is  the 
human  body.  As  a  general  result  of  Spinoza's 
psychology,  to  use  his  own  words,  *'  the  human 
soul  is  a  spiritual  automaton."* 

Were  such  the  truth,  there  could  be  no  indi- 
vidual responsibility  or  significance ;  hence 
our  aim  to  set  forth  the  importance  of  these 
principles  in  opposition  to  Pantheism. 

But  some  may  ask,   "Why  dwell   so  long 

*  Spinoza  de  Intell.  Emen.  ii.,  p.  306.     Saissct  on  Religious 
Philosophy,  vol.  i. 

13 


194  REVIVALS  OF  PANTHEISM. 


upon  Pantheism  ?  It  is  a  slain  foe,  long  since 
dead  and  entombed,  and  no  sensible  man  now 
heeds  or  adheres  to  Spinoza,  or  to  any  form  of 
Pantheism."  ''  Why,  then,  it  maybe  questioned 
in  reply,  ''  are  the  works  of  Spinoza  re-edited 
and  republished  ?  Why  do  they  offer  a  com- 
mercial reward  to  publishing  enterprize  ?  So 
far  from  being  a  forgotten  and  abandoned 
dream,  there  are  around  us  too  many  and  too 
painful  proofs  that  in  certain  adaptations  and 
disguises  the  Pantheistic  doctrine  reappears,  and 
as  of  old  strives  for  the  mastery.  There  are  so 
many  and  such  subtle  modifications  of  it  that  it 
sometimes  appears  to  have  taken  hold  even  of 
professedly  Christian  writers.  The  author  of  the 
only  extensive  essay  on  Pantheism  in  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  the  Rev.  John  Hunt,  "  curate 
of  St.  Ives,"  and  he  declares  in  his  book  (p.  374) 
that  "  Pantheism  is  on  all  hands  acknowledged 
to  be  the  theology  of  reason — of  reason  it  may 
be  in  its  impotence,  but  still  of  such  reason  as 
man  is  gifted  with  in  the  present  life.  It  is  the 
philosophy  of  religion,  the  philosophy  of  all 
religions.  It  is  the  goal  of  Rationalism,  of 
Protestantism,  of  Catholicism,  for  it  is  the  goal 
of  thought." 

Of    what   other   character    than    materially 


ANALOGIES  IN  CURRENT  THEORIES.       195 

Pantheistic  are  the  current  theories  that  deny 
or  render needlesscontinuous  Creation,  and  attri- 
bute all  we  see  and  are  to  a  nebulous  evolution  ? 
What  is  Mr.  Darwin's  theory  but  an  avowed  ne- 
g-ation  of  specific  creation  ?  What  are  his  Natu- 
ral and  Sexual  Selection  but  applications,  under 
some  modifications,  of  Spinoza's  "  Natura  natu- 
rans  ? "  In  his  general  summary  at  the  end  of  his 
work  on  the  "  Descent  of  Man,"  (pp.  385-6)  Mr. 
Darwin  assures  us  that  the  main  conclusion  ar- 
rived at  in  that  work  is  that  man  is  not  specially 
created  by  God,  but  descended  from  some  less 
highly  organized  form.  *' The  grounds,"  says 
he,  '*  upon  which  this  conclusion  rests  will  never 
be  shaken,  for  the  close  similarity  between  man 
and  the  lower  animals  in  embryonic  develop- 
ment, as  well  as  in  innumerable  points  of 
structure  and  constitution,  both  of  high  and 
of  the  most  trifling  importance, — the  rudiments 
which  he  retains,  and  the  abnormal  reversions 
to  which  he  is  occasionally  liable — are  facts 
which  cannot  be  disputed.  They  have  long 
been  known,  but  until  recently  they  told  us 
nothing  with  respect  to  the  origin  of  man. 
Now,  when  viewed  by  the  light  of  our  know- 
ledge of  the  whole  organic  world,  their  meaning 
is  unmistakeable.     The  great  principle  of  evo- 


196  MR.  DARWIN'S  CONCLUSION, 

lution  Stands  up  clear  and  firm,  when  these 
groups  of  facts  are  considered  in  connection 
with  others,  such  as  the  mutual  affinities  of  the 
members  of  the  same  group,  their  geographical 
distribution  in  past  and  present  times,  and 
their  geological  succession.  It  is  incredible 
that  all  these  facts  should  speak  falsely.  He 
who  is  not  content  to  look,  like  a  savage,  at  the 
phenomena  of  nature  as  disconnected,  cannot 
any  longer  believe  that  man  is  the  work  of  a 
separate  act  of  creation.  .  .  .  All  (facts)  point 
in  the  plainest  manner  to  the  conclusion  that 
man  is  the  co-descendant  with  other  mammals 
of  a  common  progenitor." 

As  it  now  devolves  upon  us  to  consider  the 
bearing  of  such  teaching  upon  the  accepted 
view  of  Divine  Creation,  we  shall  aim  at  the 
same  time  to  show  the  tendency  of  the  purely 
naturalistic  doctrines  of  our  day.  This  will 
render  desirable  a  concise  exposition  of  Mr. 
Darwin's  theory  of  the  Origin  of  Species,  first, 
in  its  zoological  and  scientific  merits,  and  after- 
wards in  relation  to  its  conflict  with  religious 
opinions,  not  simply  with  particular  creeds 
professed  by  some  divisions  of  the  Christian 
Church,  but  in  its  presumed  warfare  with  many 
of  the  first  principles  of  the  Christian  Faith. 


THEORIES  AND    IDEAS  OF  SPECIES.       197 


XI, 


THEORIES  AND    IDEAS    OF  SPECIES.      THE 
HYPOTHESIS    OF  AIR.    DARWIN. 

^  I  ""HE  very  limited  knowledge  which  even 
-^  otherwise  highly  educated  persons  pos- 
sess of  Natural  Science,  is  a  formidable  im- 
pediment to  the  full  and  critical  consideration 
of  any  theory  relating  to  it.  If  we  assume  the 
existence  of  even  some  acquaintance  with  its 
elementary  principles,  we  fee^-  that  we  may 
assume  too  much,  while  it  is  impossible  to 
afford  adequate  informxation  in  such  a  volume 
as  the  present  without  disproportionate  treat- 
ment of  one  subject. 

Moreover,  when  advocates  of  a  particular 
hypothesis,  like  Mr.  Darwin  and  Mr.  Wallace, 
enter  the  arena,  they  are  furnished  with  an 
amount  of  special  knowledge  which  can  only  be 
the  fortune  of  a  few ;  and  it  would  not  only 
require  a  knowledge  equal  to  theirs,    but  a 


198       THEORIES  AND  IDEAS  OF  SPECIES. 

number  of  volumes  likewise  as  great  as  theirs, 
to  answer  them  in  detail,  and  even  in  part  to 
controvert  their  theories. 

All,  then,  that  can  be  accomplished  within  a 
few  pages  is  to  state  these  theories  as  plainly 
as  we  are  capable  of  stating  them,  and  to  sup- 
ply a  little  elementary  information  in  order  to 
their  comprehension,  while  presenting  our  ob- 
jections, if  we  entertain  them,  in  such  a  form 
as  that  they  may  be  generally  understood. 
Such  a  treatment  excludes  the  application  of 
many  strictly  scientific  objections,  restricts  us 
to  a  few  of  easy  apprehension,  and  confines  us 
to  what  may  be  appreciated  by  the  majority  of 
the  reading  public.  This  preliminary  impedi- 
ment places  the  objector  at  a  great  disad- 
vantage, and  renders  him  liable  to  charges  of 
incompetence  and  inconsideration,  to  which  he 
must  submit  as  he  best  can.  Over  him  the 
theorists  themselves  have  obvious  and  nume- 
rous advantages,  independent  of  the  truth  of 
their  theories.  Mr.  Darwin's  views  are  espe- 
cially difficult  to  estimate,  since  they  are  mani- 
festly incomplete  in  his  own  mind,  and  are 
professedly  put  forth  as  hypothetical.  Four 
works  of  his  are  now  before  the  author,  who  has 
endeavoured  to  give  them  all,  as  they  appeared, 


CLASSIFICATION.  199 

careful  consideration.  But  in  these  volumes  the 
indecisions  and  fluctuations  of  Mr.  Darwin's 
mind  are  undeniable.  He  himself,  with  a  most 
praiseworthy  candour,  confesses  as  much.  No 
special  theorist  is  more  ready  to  acknowledge 
mistakes,  modifications,  and  corrections ;  yet, 
while  in  this  respect  he  wins  our  esteem,  and 
gains  a  large  amount  of  public  credit,  we  must 
not  on  this  account  be  precluded  from  weighing 
his  hypotheses  in  the  balance,  and  directing 
attention  to  their  ulterior  tendencies. 

Animals  and  plants  are  arranged  in  groups 
distinguished  summarily  as  Branches,  Classes, 
Orders,  Families,  Genera,  Species,  and  Va- 
rieties. But  the  vast  number  of  organisms, 
when  studied  very  carefully,  occasion  con- 
siderable difflculty  in  attempting  to  form  a 
complete  and  accurate  classification  of  them. 
Species  in  particular  have  been  multiplied  im- 
mensely, and  sub-species  and  varieties  have 
been  added  beyond  measure.  It  is  not  easy  to 
draw  a  distinct  line  between  species  and  sub- 
species, between  species  and  varieties ;  and 
again,  between  varieties  and  individuals.  Lines 
have  been  sometimes  drawn  arbitrarily,  and 
have  seemed  so  questionable,  that  naturalists 
have  denied  their  correspondence  with  actual 


!oo  DEFINITIONS  OF  SPECIES. 


natural  distinctions.  Many  have  denied  all  but 
individuals.  This  is  the  source  of  several  theo- 
ries of  the  transmutation  of  species,  inclusive 
of  the  latest,  namely  that  of  Mr.  Darwin. 

It  is  important  to  possess  as  clear  a  concep- 
tion as  possible  of  what  is  meant  by  the  term 
Species  in  Natural  History.  Without  some  aid, 
however,  the  reader  will  not  easily  form  such 
a  conception,  as  few  who  have  employed  the 
term  have  properly  defined  it.  Cuvier  explains 
it  as  meaning  the  collection  of  all  the  beings 
descended  the  one  from  the  other,  and  from 
common  parents,  and  of  those  which  bear  as 
close  a  resemblance  to  these  as  they  bear  to  each 
other.  De  Candolle  includes  under  one  species 
all  the  individuals  which  bear  to  each  other 
so  close  a  resemblance  as  to  allow  of  our  sup- 
posing that  they  have  proceeded  originally  from 
a  single  pair.  Both  of  these  definitions  assume 
continuous  descent  from  a  primal  pair,  or  pro- 
toplast ;  and  Dr.  Morton  defines  species  in  the 
same  manner,  as  **  a  group  of  individuals 
descended  from  a  primordial  organic  form." 
In  this  definition  he  has  a  special  reference  to 
man  and  his  descent  from  a  common  pair. 
Professor  Dana  defines  the  term  as  *'  a  specific 


DEFINITIONS   OF  SPECIES.  201 

amount    or    condition    of    concentrated    force 
defined  in  the  law  or  act  of  creation." 

Many  still  believe,  and  perhaps  until  of  recent 
years  most  naturalists  believed,  that  each  species 
is  definable,  and  also  permanently  reproduc- 
tive, though  variable  within  narrow  limits,  and 
incapable  of  intermixture  with  other  species. 
In  this  view,  Species  is  not  merely  a  de- 
signation of  convenience,  like  many  terms 
in  Natural  Science,  but  an  actual  existence. 
"The  species,"  says  Dr.  Dawson  in  his 
Archaia,  *'is  not  merely  an  ideal  unit;  it  is 
a  unit  in  the  work  of  creation.  Creation  refers 
to  certain  original  individuals,  protoplasts 
formed  after  their  kinds  or  species,  and  repre- 
senting the  powers  and  limits  of  variation  in- 
herent in  the  species — the  potentialities  of  their 
existence.  The  species,  with  all  its  powers 
and  capabilities  for  reproduction,  is  the  Cre- 
ator's unit  in  his  work,  and  our  unit  in  study. 
The  individuals  are  so  many  masses  of  organ- 
ized matter,  in  which  for  the  time  the  powers 
of  the  species  are  embodied,  and  the  only 
animal  having  a  true  individuality  is  man,  etc. 
The  species  is  different,  not  in  degree,  but  in 
kind  from  the  genus,  the  order,  and  the  class. 
We  recognize  a  general  resemblance  in  a  series 


DEFINITIONS  OF  SPECIES. 


of  line  engravings  representing  different  sub- 
jects, but  only  a  specific  unity  in  those  struck 
from  the  same  plate.  The  species  differs  from 
all  other  groups  in  not  being  an  ideal  entity, 
but  consisting  of  individuals  struck  from  the 
same  die,  produced  by  continuous  reproduction 
from  the  same  creative  source." 

According  to  Flourens,  that  which  deter- 
mines species  is  not  the  form,  but  its  interior 
characteristics,  especially  fecundity.  Con- 
tinuous fecundity  principally  characterizes  the 
Species,  limited  fecundity  the  Genus,  and  the 
absence  of  fecundity  characterizes  the  Order. 
Species  are  distinct  from  genera,  for  the 
decisive  reason  that  they  have  but  a  limited 
fecundity  beyond  themselves.  Buffon  had 
shown  that  the  comparison  of  the  resemblance 
of  animals  is  but  an  accessory  idea,  and  often 
independent  of  the  constant  succession  of 
individuals  by  generation — for  the  ass  is  more 
like  the  horse  than  the  water  spaniel  is  like  the 
greyhound ;  yet  the  two  latter  are  but  one 
species,  since  they  together  produce  individuals 
which  can  themselves  produce  others  in  the 
same  way,  whereas  the  ass  and  the  horse  pro- 
duce together  only  faulty  and  sterile  animals. 

Perhaps  the  clearest  and  most  correct  state- 


SIR   C.   LYELL   ON  SPECIES.  203 

ment  of  the  bearing  of  those  conceptions  of 
species  is  found  in  Sir  Charles  Lyell's  recap- 
itulation of  inquiry  into  this  subject,  in  his 
"  Principles  of  Geology,"  where  he  has  devoted 
three  chapters  to  it : 

"Recapitulation. — For  the  reasons,  therefore, 
detailed  in  this  and  the  two  preceding  chapters, 
we  may  draw  the  following  inferences  in  regard 
to  the  reality  of  species  in  Nature. 

**  ist.  That  there  is  a  capacity  in  all  species 
to  accommodate  themselves,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, to  a  change  of  external  circumstances, 
the  extent  varying  greatly,  according  to  the 
species. 

"  2nd.  When  the  change  of  situation  which 
they  can  endure  is  great,  it  is  usually  attended 
by  some  modifications  of  the  form,  colour,  size, 
structure,  or  other  particulars ;  but  the  fluctu- 
ations thus  superinduced  are  governed  by  con- 
stant laws,  and  the  capability  of  so  varying 
forms  part  of  the  permanent  specific  character. 

*'3rd.  Some  acquired  peculiarities  of  form, 
structure,  and  instinct  are  transmissible  to 
the  offspring ;  but  these  consist  of  such  qual- 
ities and  attributes  only  as  are  intimately 
related  to  the  natural  W-ints  and  propensities  of 
the  species. 


204  SIJ^  C.  LYELL   ON  SPECIES. 

*'4th.  The  entire  variation  from  the  original 
type  which  any  given  kind  of  change  can  pro- 
duce, may  usually  be  affected  in  a  brief  period 
of  time,  after  which  no  further  deviation  can 
be  obtained  by  continuing  to  alter  the  circum- 
stances, though  ever  so  gradually ;  indefinite 
divergence,  either  in  the  way  of  improvement 
c  r  deterioration  being  prevented,  and  the  least 
possible  excess  beyond  the  defined  limits  being 
fatal  to  the  existence  of  the  individual. 

*'  5th.  The  intermixture  of  distinct  species 
is  guarded  against  by  the  aversion  of  the 
individuals  composing  them  to  sexual  union, 
or  by  the  sterility  of  the  mule  offspring. 

"  It  does  not  appear  that  true  hybrid  races 
have  ever  been  perpetuated  for  several  genera- 
tions, even  by  the  assistance  of  man ;  for  the 
cases  usually  cited  relate  to  the  crossing  of 
mules  with  individuals  of  pure  species,  and 
not  to  the  intermixture  of  hybrid  with  hybrid. 

"  6th.  From  the  above  considerations,  it 
appears  that  species  have  a  real  existence  in 
Nature,  and  that  each  was  endowed  at  the  time 
of  its  creation  with  the  attributes  and  organ- 
ization by  which  it  is  now  distinguished."* 

■^  "  Principles  of  Geolog}%"  Eighth  edition,  pp.  588—9.  This 
author's-  views  are  now  entirely  changed. 


TRANSMUTATION  OF  SPECIES.  205 

In  direct  opposition  to  these  views  of  the 
distinctness  of  species,  and  of  their  individual 
creation,  stand  all  those  theories  which,  in  one 
form  or  another,  may  be  ranked  under  the 
general  terms  of  Transmutation  or  Develop- 
ment. It  is  not  easy  to  extract  from  the  various 
advocates  of  such  hypotheses,  precise  and  de- 
fined views,  but  the  leading  supporters  of  them 
have  advocated  opinions  which  may  be  thus 
simply  expressed,  (i.)  That  all  the  genera  of 
future  plants,  organized  bodies  of  all  kinds, 
and  the  reproducible  parts  of  them  were  really 
contained  in  the  first  germ.  (2.)  That  species 
were  not  produced  by  independent  creation, 
but  that,  under  the  operation  of  a  general  law, 
the  germs  of  organisms  produced  new  forms, 
different  from  themselves  when  particular  cir- 
cumstances called  the  law  into  action.  (3.)  That 
these  evoking  circumstances  have  occurred  in  de- 
finite order,  and  in  conformity  with  a  great  pre- 
ordained form,  whereby  the  scheme  of  life  has 
ever  been  kept  in  harmony  with  the  ordinal  rank 
which  now  prevails  among  plants  and  animals. 

The  most  distinguished  exponent  now  living 
of  such  a  theory,  is  Mr.  Charles  Darwin,  whose 
work  '*0n  the  Origin  of  Species,"  has  been 
warmly  welcomed  by  those  who  hold  to  trans- 


2o6  MR.   DARWIN'S  THEORY. 


mutational  development.  In  this  interesting- 
volume  Mr.  Darwin  introduces  a  large  number  of 
natural  phenomena  which  he  claims  as  supports 
to  his  hypothesis.  Disentangled  from  many 
circumlocutions  and  much  obscurity,  when 
stated  as  concisely  as  possible,  the  views  advo- 
cated by  this  eminent  Naturalist  are  these  : — 

Species  are  not  fixed  and  distinct,  but  mu- 
table, and  there  has  been,  and  now  is,  a  gradual 
evolution  of  one  species  out  of  another.  Two 
great  causes  or  laws  effect  this  evolution. 

(i.)  A^atural  Selection,  or  the  law  of  the  con- 
servation of  the  favourable  variations  of  beings 
and  the  elimination  of  injurious  deviations — in 
other  words  an  incessant  and  inherent  power  of 
Nature  to  reject  that  which  is  bad,  and  to  pre- 
serve and  assist  that  which  is  good. 

(2.)  The  Struggle  for  Existence,  or  the  per- 
petual contest  vv^hich  all  living  beings  wage  with 
each  other  for  the  means  of  existence,  from  the 
carnivorous  animal  which  devours  its  prey,  to 
the  plant  which  chokes  its  neighbour. 

The  law  of  Natural  Selection  is  founded  on 
the  supposition  that  each  new  species  forms 
and  maintains  itself  by  the  help  of  some  advan- 
tage which  it  possesses  over  those  with  which 
it  meets,  and  from  which  inevitably  results  the 


MR.   DARWIN'S   THEORY.  207 

destruction  of  forms  less  favourable.  This  law 
Mr.  Darwin  believes  to  have  been  in  operation 
from  the  time  of  the  first  appearance  of  life  on 
our  earth. 

The  Struggle  for  Existence  comes  in  aid  of 
Natural  Selection,  by  destroying  the  weaker 
and  rejected  creatures.  This,  indeed,  is  only  a 
generalization  of  the  law  of  Mr.  Matthews  and 
the  application  of  it  to  all  organic  existence. 

Endeavouring  further  to  simplify  and  repre- 
sent fairly  Mr.  Darwin's  hypothesis,  it  is  con- 
sidered that  the  following  is  a  plain  and  concise 
statement  of  it  in  connection  with  the  operation 
of  the  main  causes  just  specified. 

Looking  at  our  entire  fauna  and  flora,  or 
animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms,  the  whole  are 
bound  together  in  one  continuous  series,  and 
in  such  unbroken  continuity  that  it  is  impossible 
to  decide  where  one  species  ends  and  another 
begins,  and  that  therefore  there  does  not  exist 
a  multitude  of  distinct  species  as  commonly 
supposed.  To  account  for  this  continuity  of  ani- 
mate beings,  Mr.  Darwin  supposes  that  they  all 
sprang  from  one  or  a  few  primordial  forms — at 
most  perhaps  eight  or  ten,  because  we  can  dis- 
cern some  eight  or  ten  unbroken  series  of  ani- 
mate beings,  if  the  missing  links  in  each  chain 


2o8  MR.   DARWIN'S  THEORY. 

be  allowed  to  have  existed,  although  there  are 
no  actual  proofs  of  their  having  existed.  In  all 
these  chains  one  being  succeeds  to  another  by 
almost  insensible  variations,  or  changes  of 
structure,  but  organs  found,  in  the  process  of 
these  changes,  to  be  rudimentary  in  one  being, 
are  seen  in  perfection  in  another  being  lower 
dow^n  in  the  same  chain. 

The  continuity  in  each  chain  is  the  result  of 
the  descent  of  all  its  links  from  one  common 
ancestor.  The  differences  between  any  two 
members  of  each  living  chain  are  due  to  a  law 
that  any  attributed  change  of  structure  in  plant 
or  animal  is  transmissible  to  its  offspring.  If 
favourable,  it  will  be  advantageous  in  the 
struggle  for  existence,  and  be  perpetuated 
until  again  improved  by  accident.  This  hypo- 
thesis is  thought  sufficient  to  account  for  all 
the  varieties  in  nature,  and  for  the  formation  of 
every  organ,  however  complex,  of  animal  or 
vegetable.  Mr.  Darwin  has  even  carried  his 
views  to  the  extreme  of  saying  : — "  Therefore 
I  should  infer  from  analogy  that  probably  all 
the  organic  beings  which  have  ever  lived  on 
this  earth  have  descended  from  one  form,  into 
which  life  was  breathed  by  the  Creator." 

It    is    not   practicable    or   desirable'  in    this 


OBJECTIONS   TO  DARJllN'S    THEORY.      209 

volume  to  enter  either  fully  into  Mr.  Darwin's 
scientific  details,  or  those  of  his  opponents, 
for  besides  the  space  and  time  demanded  for  a 
full  discussion  of  the  hypothesis,  it  has  been 
discussed  by  many  writers,  with  various  degrees 
of  merit  and  at  various  lengths.  The  present 
author  s  principal  aim  in  these  pages  is  briefly 
to  notice  the  assumptions  on  which  the  theory 
rests,  to  show  its  tendencies,  and  to  advert  to 
some  radical  objections  to  its  truth.  It  is  in- 
deed but  one  of  several  theories  of  deve- 
lopment, but  claims  special  attention,  since  for 
some  time  past  it  has  excited  a  wide  and  deep 
interest.  We  may  observe  that  so  many  things 
are  pure  assumptions  in  this  hypothesis,  and  so 
much  is  brought  forward  which  is  merely  con- 
jectural, that  it  is  at  best  only  tentative,  and 
Mr.  Darwin  has  made  several  candid  admissions 
of  the  difficulties  which  may  prevail  against  its 
general  reception. 

Of  the  numerous  objections  which  lie  against 
Darwin's  hypothesis,  it  is  sufficient  to  select 
some  that  are  most  forcible  and  readily  intelli- 
gible. Flourens  declares  his  conviction  after 
long  reflection,  that  Mr.  Darwin  confounds 
variability  with  mutability. 

A  very   formidable   objection   against  Dar- 

14 


2IO  TRANSITIONAL  FORMS. 


winism  is  that  a  vast  number  of  transitional 
forms  should-  be  apparent  as  the  necessary 
consequence  of  the  gradual  passage  of  one 
species  into  another.  Any  reader  will  per- 
ceive on  reflection  that  an  universal  and  con- 
tinuous development  of  organic  beings  through 
a  long  series  of  forms,  must,  if  it  has  been  in 
actual  operation,  disclose  numerous  mutations 
at  its  various  stages,  or  show  the  existence  at 
various  stages,  of  forms  intermediate  between 
two  species.  Otherwise  the  connecting  links 
in  the  living  chain  would  be  wanting.  Yet 
there  neither  is  in  the  organic  beings  now 
known  to  be  living  on  earth,  nor  in  the 
remains  of  animals  as  yet  exhumed,  a  single 
decided  and  incontrovertibly  admitted  instance 
of  a  transitional  variety. 

The  reply  made  to  this  serious  objection  is 
that  the  Geological  Record  is  so  imperfect — 
that  we  have  so  few  fossils  from  out  of  the  vast 
mass  of  ancient  life — and  that  we  at  present 
know  so  little  concerning  the  fulness  of  life  in 
geological  epochs,  that  in  truth  all  conclusions 
drawn  from  what  we  now  discover,  must  be  in- 
sufficient. There  may  have  been  numerous 
transitional  forms  though  we  have  not  found 
them.     Of  the  many  volumes  of  palseontologi- 


WANT  OF  TRANSITIONAL  EVIDENCE.      211 


cal  history  we  have  but,  as  it  were,  the  last 
volume,  and  even  that  in  an  imperfect  state. 

The  objection  mentioned  is  regarded  as 
weighty  by  Mr.  Darwin  himself,  although  he 
and  his  friends  employ  the  answers  just  ad- 
verted to.  A  recent  attempt  to  lighten  it 
shapes  itself  into  the  assertion,  *'  that  Nature 
can  produce  a  new  type  without  our  being  able 
to  see  the  marks  of  transition,  and  she  can 
alter  a  whole  race  simultaneously  without  its 
passing  through  the  phase  of  development 
from  an  individual  in  whom  the  entire  change 
was  first  produced.  "  *  If  Nature  can  do  this, 
it  remains  to  be  shown  that  she  ever  has  done 
it,  and  if  she  can  do  it  without  our  seeinof  it, 
how  are  we  to  know  that  she  can  do  it  ? 

In  conjunction  with  these  objections,  another 
may  be  offered  to  the  hypothesis  of  a  per- 
sistence of  profitable  variations  in  every  species 
of  plants  and  animals. 

The  hypothesis  of  Mr.  Darwin  absolutely  re- 
quires that  every  variation  or  modification  of  an 
animal  or  plant,  in  order  to  become  permanent, 
must  be  an  improvement,  whereby  it  is  fitted  for 
its  existing  condition.    We  can  understand  how 

*  "  Geographical   Distribution  of  Mammals."    By  Andrew 
Murray,  1866. 


INTERMEDIATE   CONDITIONS. 


certain  organs  might  become  lengthened  or 
modified  by  efforts  towards  their  advantageous 
applications,  upon  such  an  hypothesis ;  but 
there  are  other  organs  which  can  be  of  no  use 
whatever,  until  they  obtain  a  certain  degree  of 
development.  For  example,  until  a  bird's 
wing  is  sufficiently  developed  to  enable  the 
animal  to  lift  itself  in  the  air,  it  is  absolutely 
useless.  The  partial  development — the  incom- 
plete organ  would  be  an  impediment,  so  that 
whether  the  bird  with  perfect  wings  were  de- 
veloped from  a  fish  or  a  quadruped,  the  inter- 
mediate stages  would  have  greatly  impeded  the 
intermediate  creatures.  And  that  there  must 
ha  /e  been  many  such  intermediate  creatures  is 
manifest,  if  we  look  at  the  great  difierences 
between  birds,  and  all  other  vertebrate  animals. 
So  great  are  these  that  Mr.  Darwin  remarks, 
*'  We  may  account  for  the  distinctness  of  birds 
from  all  other  vertebrate  animals  by  the  belief 
that  many  ancient  forms  of  life  have  been 
utterly  lost." 

But  where  could  these  lost  forms  have  been, 
granting  that  they  ever  existed  ?  They  must 
have  been  intermediate,  and  must  have  borne 
organs  in  many  intermediate  and  imperfect 
states  ;  whi^e  any  animal  approaching  to  a  bird, 


TRANSITIONAL  IMPERFECTIONS.  213 

yet  not  a  bird,  any  animal  with  a  half  developed 
wing,  together  with  or  without  other  half  de- 
veloped organs  at  the  same  time,  must  have 
been  a  monstrosity,  and  either  in  respect  of  easy 
motion  on  the  ground  or  any  motion  in  the  air, 
an  inconvenient  and  painfully  existing  mon- 
strosity. A  creature  between  any  known  ver 
tebrate  animal  and  any  known  bird,  in  many 
and  perhaps  every  preceding  stage  of  develop- 
ment, could  not  have  moved  without  difficulty 
or  failure ;  and  such  failure  must,  in  most  cases, 
if  not  in  all,  have  prevented  the  perfection  and 
completeness  of  the  after  growth  and  structure. 
All  such  imperfections  of  structure  must  have 
been  hindrances  to  freedom  of  action,  and 
thereby  to  fulness  of  growth,  and  thereby  again 
to  success. 

The  more  this  objection  is  regarded,  the 
more  formidable,  I  think,  it  will  probably  be 
found.  Not  only  have  we  no  known  intermedi- 
ate forms,  but  if  we  had,  we  should  see  many 
of  them  labouring  under  a  burden  of  half  de- 
veloped impediments  to  motion  and  improve- 
ment. Organs  which  are  useless  till  perfect, 
must  be  long  in  coming  to  perfection,  and  just 
so  long,  a  great  inconvenience  to  the  wearer. 
They  would  not  be  known  to  be  improvements. 


214  TRANSITIONAL  IMPERFECTIONS. 


until  they  had  begun  to  discharge  their  definite 
functions,  or,  if  they  were  foreknown  to  be  im- 
provements, then  every  other  variation  must 
have  been  destroyed.  By  the  hypothesis  there 
have  been  no  specific  creations  except  a  few 
primary  forms  in  the  far  beginning,  but  all  life 
has  been  an  extremely  slow  development,  and 
every  result  has  come  into  existence  by  very 
small  and  very  gradual  additions  or  modifica- 
tions. Therefore,  for  equally  long  periods, 
there  must  have  been  great  transitional  imper- 
fections, and  in  the  case  of  many  organs  use- 
less until  quite  perfect,  great  transitional 
hindrances,  extreme  awkwardness  of  loco- 
motion, and,  as  it  must  be  confessed,  con- 
tinually increasing  awkw^ardness  until  the 
rudimental  became  the  perfect  structure. 

Assume  various  transitional  developments  for 
the  purpose  of  illustration,  and  then  the  extreme 
difficulty,  or  clumsiness  or  inconvenience  of  ex- 
istence in  the  intermediate  stages  will  be  appa- 
rent. It  is  manifestly  impossible  that  in  and 
during  all  such  stages,  every  variation  should 
have  been  an  improvement  to  the  animal  exhibit- 
ing it,  or  could  have  been  foreseen  to  tend  to 
ultimate  improvement  by  any  conception  which 
we  can  form  of  Nature  or  Natural  Selection. 


TRANSITIONAL   VARIATIONS.  215 

If  with  such  ideas  we  look  at  the  state  of  the 
organic  world  of  life  around  us,  and  apply  the 
Darwinian  hypothesis  to  it,  we  must  suppose 
ourselves  to  be  living  at  some  one  stage  of 
developed  life,  a  stage  which  is  not  final  but 
only  transitional.  We  are  not  supposed  to  be 
now  living  at  the  ultimate  epoch  of  perfect 
Nature,  but  only  in  one  of  the  periods  which 
lead  towards  it.  All  living  creatures  upon  our 
earth,  are,  by  hypothesis,  developed  from  other 
forms  in  the  past,  and  all  are  passing  on  by 
descent  with  modifications  to  higher  forms  in 
the  future.  Hence  there  should  now  be  nume- 
rous and  minute  variations  which  clearly  display 
every  intermediate  degree  of  transitional  im- 
provement ;  and  further  some  other  variations 
which  are  not  beneficial,  and  which  should  there- 
fore be  in  course  of  suppression  and  destruction. 
Where  are  these,  and  what  indicates  them  ? 

The  fades  of  every  order  of  living  things 
displays  the  contrary.  In  each  order  such 
transitional  imperfections  are  wanting,  and  no 
naturalist  points  out  their  existence.  By  hypo- 
thesis, the  fades  of  the  total  earthly  fauna  or 
flora  ought  to  display  them. 

Furthermore  not  only  ought  the  total  terres- 
trial fauna  and  flora  to  have  displayed  them, 


2i6  TRANSITIONAL    VARIATIONS. 


plainly,  but  likewise  most  numerously  and  most 
minutely,  for  the  transitions   must   have  been 
at  least  as  numerous  as   the   individuals,   and 
this  in  all  biological   time.     If  an  appeal  be 
made  to  Palaeontology,  then  the  absence  of  tran- 
sitional links  is  not  due  to  the  casual   imper- 
fection of  the  record  only,  for  strangely  enough 
the  Geological  Record  appears  purposely  to  have 
omitted  the  preservation  of  these,  and  purposely 
to  have  preserved  only  the  untransitional.    The 
destructive  probabilities  were  surely  as  great 
against  the  one  as  the  other.     If  we  discover 
fossils  only  by  accident,  at  wide  distances,  and 
at  considerable  intervals,  almost  inevitably  we 
should  have  discovered  some  of  the  one  kind, 
as  well  as   of  the  other.     Granted  that  some 
parts  of  the  ancient  earth  are  better  explored 
than  others,  nevertheless  many  parts  have  now 
been  industriously  explored,  and  yet  of  all  the 
indefinitely  numerous  and  of  all  the  excessively 
various  transitions  which  must  by  hypothesis 
have  existed,  none  have  been  brought  to  light 
in  transitu.     What  has  been  said  of  the  fossil 
Archscopteryx,  and  other  forms,  allowing  all  to 
have  its  full  weight,  does   not  invalidate  the 
general  force  of  the  preceding  observations. 
While    the    hypothesis    advocated    by    Mr. 


PROBABILITIES   OF  PRESERVATION,         217 

Darwin  supposes  an  indefinite  number  of 
variations,  and  a  ceaseless  struggle  for  ex- 
istence, we  ask,  what  is  the  balance  of  proba- 
bilities in  favour  of  the  preservation  of  some 
over  the  extinction  of  others  ?  If  there  be  a 
ceaseless  struggle  amongst  all,  the  conse- 
quences of  the  struggle  must  frequently  be  as 
disastrous  against  the  one  as  the  other ;  other- 
wise the  continual  survival  of  the  fittest  would 
amount  to  a  certainty,  and  exclude  proba- 
bilities. If  all  variations  have  to  contend  with 
repressing  powers,  it  is  hard  to  see  upon  a  cor- 
rect theory  of  probabilities,  why  useful  varia- 
tions alone  in  every  case  prevail.  If  they  do 
in  every  instance  so  prevail,  then  their  per- 
petual prevalence  must  be  beyond  any  natural 
principle,  and  can  be  due  only  to  some  supra- 
natural  control.  Assume  an  unintermitting 
action  of  destructive  forces  as  operating  in 
Nature  against  organic  life,  then  how  can  we  at 
the  same  time  admit  an  unintermitting  and 
concurrent  action  of  opposingly  conservative 
powers,  the  latter  being  always  conservative 
in  a  particular  direction,  but  yet  recognized  as 
only  natural  ?  Mr.  Darwin  says  that  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  a  grain  may  turn  the 
balance  in  favour  of  a  particular  structure  which 


IMMUTABILITY   OF  SPECIES. 


will  thereby  be  preserved.  Why,  however,  is 
the  grain  always  found  in  one  scale,  and  never 
in  the  other  ?  Can  any  natural  power  always 
place  this  preponderant  grain  in  one  scale  in 
order  to  outweigh  another  natural  power  in  the 
other?  When  a  house  is  divided  against 
itself  it  must  fall.  Can  Nature  when  divided 
against  itself  certainly  stand? 

In  Mr.  Darwin's  subsequent  work  entitled 
*'  The  Variation  of  Plants  and  Animals  under 
Domestication,"  he  assumes  the  same  ground, 
but  does  not  really  strengthen  his  posi- 
tion. *'  If,"  says  he,  *'  organic  beings  had 
not  possessed  an  inherent  tendency  to  vary, 
man  could  have  done  nothing."  To  this  we 
may  reply,  that  man  has  done  almost  nothing. 
He  has  never  originated  a  species,  and  he  has 
never  permanently  varied  a  species.  The  ten- 
dency in  animals  and  plants  is  not  to  vary,  and 
if  odd  breeds  be  produced,  still  there  is  an  inhe- 
rent disposition  to  return,  and  not  permanently 
to  vary.  "  The  immutability  of  species,"  says  an 
anonymous  writer  concisely,  **is  maintained  by 
two  unconquerable  laws — the  ultimate  sterility 
of  breeds,  and  their  reversion  to  the  type  when 
let  alone.  Man  can  influence  size,  which  is  a 
variation    of  individuals    and   not   of  species. 


VARIATIONS   UNDER  MAN  219 


Man  can  modify  the  flowers  and  fruits  of  plants 
within  certain  inexorable  limits,  and  obtain 
size,  or  flavour,  or  varying  blooms,  but  specific 
characters  elude  his  power  entirely.  Perma- 
nent reproduction  is  the  fundamental  idea  of 
species,  and  there  is  no  continuous  fecundity 
in  breeds,  their  sterility  or  reversion  being  in- 
evitable. What  man  seems  to  be  most  able  to 
transmit  through  several  generations  is  diseases." 
This  subject  of  fecundity  is  carefully  and  freely 
treated  by  M.  Flourens  in  his  refutation  of  Mr. 
Darwin's  theory. 

Another  line  of  objection  has  been  adopted. 
by  several  critics,  to  the  effect  that  the  argu- 
ments for  Darwin's  theory  are  chiefly  derived 
from  the  variations  to  be  met  with  in  animals 
and  plants,  which  seldom  occur  in  the  wild 
state,  but  only  after  subjection  to  the  control 
of  man.  Whenever  under  human  control  such 
variations  do  occur,  they  result  in  a  weaken- 
ing of  the  animal  in  respect  of  those  qualities 
which  render  it  most  fit  to  maintain  the  strug- 
gle for  life;  and  after  a  return  to  the  wild  state, 
the  animal  loses  those  qualities  which  it  had 
acquired,  and  merges  into  the  common  stock. 
Were  the  theory  of  progressive  and  profitable 
development  true,  this  result  could  not  follow, 


220  SPECIFIC  STABILITY. 

but  the  animal  would  impart  its  own  acquired 
properties  to  its  descendants.  Similar  conse- 
quences may  be  witnessed  in  plants,  as  for 
instance  in  the  rose  and  pine-apple,  which, 
while  by  cultivation  they  gained  properties 
agreeable  to  man,  on  the  other  hand  lost 
the  power  of  reproduction,  and  thus  became 
weakened  in  the  so-called  struo-crle  for  life. 

Much  remains  to  be  said  in  relation  to  the 
stability  of  species  in  the  intervals  of  change, 
to  the  extent  of  specific  stability,  and  several 
allied  topics,  but  the  discussion  of  them  would 
be  out  of  place  in  these  pages  and  exceed  their 
limits.  Reference  may  be  made  for  some  of 
these  considerations  to  the  excellent  recent 
book  of  Mr.  St.  George  Mivart,  on  the  Genesis 
of  Species,  (1871),  and  to  an  able  critique  of 
the  Darwinian  theory  in  the  "  North  British 
Review"  (June,  1867).  To  both  of  these  I  am 
indebted,  and  they  are  well  worth  attentive 
perusal.  The  Reviewer  has  dealt  clearly  and 
fairly  with  this  theory,  and  concludes  that  '*  the 
chief  arguments  used  to  establish  the  theory 
rest  on  conjecture ;"  and  after  specifying  the 
principal  conjectural  arguments,  he  adds,  **  We 
are  asked  to  believe  all  these  'maybes'  Happen- 
ing on  an  enormous  scale,   in   order  that  we 


CHOICE    OF  CONJECTURES.  i2\ 

may  believe  the  final  Darwinian  *  maybe,'  as  to 
the  origin  of  species.  The  general  form  of  his 
(Darwin's)  argument  is  as  follows  : — *  All  these 
things  may  have  been,  therefore  my  theory  is 
possible,  and  since  my  theory  is  a  possible  one, 
all  those  hypotheses  which  it  requires  are  ren- 
dered probable.'  There  is  little  direct  evidence 
that  any  of  these  maybes  actually  have  deeny 

''  What  can  we  believe,"  he  concludes  by 
saying,  "  but  that  Darwin's  theory  is  an  inge- 
nious and  plausible  speculation,  to  which  future 
physiologists  will  look  back  with  the  kind  of 
admiration  we  bestow  on  the  atoms  of  Lucre- 
tius, or  the  crystal  spheres  of  Eudoxus,  con- 
taining like  those  some  faint  half  truths,  marking 
at  once  the  ignorance  of  the  age  and  the  ability 
of  the  philosopher.  Surely  the  time  is  past 
when  a  theory  unsupported  by  evidence  is  to  be 
received  as  probable,  because  in  our  ignorance 
we  know  not  why  it  should  be  false,  though  we 
cannot  show  it  to  be  true.  Yet  we  have  heard 
grave  men  gravely  urge  that  because  Darwin's 
theory  was  the  most  plausible  known,  it  should 
be  received."  Let  this  be  added,  and  many 
readers  may  have  read  it,  as  the  assertion  of  a 
popular  naturalist  of  our  day,  that  to  reject 
Darwin's  theory  is  to  reject  all  worthy  of  the 


222  VAST  DEMANDS  OF  TIME. 


name :   that  our  choice  lies  between  that  and 
nothing. 

Over  and  above  the  strictly  scientific  objec- 
tions offered  by  disbelievers  in  the  efficiency 
claimed  for  Natural  Selection,  there  is  one  of 
the  most  menacing  character,  and  at  the  same 
time  readily  comprehensible.  This  is  strongly 
and  I  think  successfully  urged  by  the  Reviewer 
above  cited,  and  might  even  be  enlarged,  and 
so  enforced  as  almost  to  overthrow  the  assump- 
tions of  Darwin  in  favour  of  Natural  Selection. 
It  is  based  upon  Time.  Mr.  Darwin  himself 
candidly  confesses  that  he  "  who  does  not  ad- 
mit how  incomprehensibly  vast  have  been  the 
past  periods  of  time"  may  at  once  close  his 
volume,  thus  acknowledging  that  an  indefinite, 
if  not  infinite,  time  is  demanded  for  his  theory. 
Now,  in  point  of  lapse  of  time,  the  theory  trans- 
cends all  our  knowledge  and  all  probability. 
If  we  regard  a  period  of  two  or  three  thousand 
years  we  are  certain  that  no  great  change  has 
been  made  In  men  or  animals  during  that  time, 
for  the  figures  In  Egyptian  and  other  very  an- 
cient monuments  display  the  same  forms  as  now 
exist.  Whatever  unimportant  change  might 
be  found  within  such  a  period,  a  very  large 
number  of  years  must  be  necessary  to  magnify 


VAST  DEMANDS  OF  TIME,  223 


this  into  an  important  change.  Imagine  twenty 
or  thirty  thousand  years  to  be  necessary  to  con- 
vert the  unimportant  into  the  important,  still 
the  animal  would  not  greatly  differ  from  its 
primeval  form.  Since  the  changes  by  hypo- 
thesis are  immeasurably  small  and  slow,  we 
may  go  back  to  three  hundred  or  four  hundred 
thousand  years,  and  even  then  discover  essen- 
tially the  same  animal.  How  many  hundreds 
of  thousands  or  millions  of  years  then  would  be 
required  to  discover  an  essentially  different  form 
— to  convert  a  monkey  into  a  man  ?  Further- 
more, when  we  take  the  extreme  terms  of  trans- 
mutation, how  many  millions  upon  millions  of 
years  are  indispensable  for  the  agency  of  natu- 
ral selection  in  converting  a  fly  into  an  elephant, 
or  a  stickleback  into  a  whale  ?  Lastly,  will  any 
conceivable  lapse  of  time  suffice  for  transmuting 
a  primordial  germ  into  a  perfect  man  ? 

Past  time  may  for  aught  that  is  told  us  be 
indefinite  in  quantity,  but  as  a  fundamental  ele- 
ment the  rate  of  change  should  not  be  equally 
indefinite.  Geology  bears  an  adverse  testi- 
mony, for  it  shows  that  innumerable  ages  have 
elapsed,  each  bearing  countless  generations  of 
creatures,  and  none  differing  in  a  very  great 
degree  as  to  its  physical  conditions  from  those 


224  VAST  DEMANDS  OF   TIME. 


of  our  own  age.  In  order  to  empower  Natural 
Selection  sufficiently,  we  must  go  back  to  ages 
even  antecedent  to  observable  geological  evi- 
dence; and  thus  in  respect  of  immensity  of 
time  we  are  wholly  at  fault. 

Suppose  that  the  probable  time  of  the  begin- 
ning of  the  very  ancient  Cambrian  deposits  was 
(as  Mr.  Wallace  assumes)  something  approxi- 
mating to  twenty-four  million  years  ago — we 
have  that  length  of  ages  for  the  duration  of  the 
known  fossils  ;  and  that  confessedly  is  altoge- 
ther insufficient  for  the  great  alleged  changes 
bv  transmutation.  Sir  William  Thomson  of 
Glasgow  has  advanced  arguments  drawn  from 
three  distinct  lines  of  scientific  inquiry — (i)  the 
action  of  the  tides  upon  the  earth's  rotation ; 
(2)  the  probable  length  of  time  in  which  the  sun 
has  illuminated  our  planet ;  (3)  the  temperature 
of  the  interior  of  the  earth.  The  conclusion  at 
which  he  arrives,  as  the  result  of  his  calcula- 
tions, is  that  life  on  the  earth,  geological  his- 
tor}'-,  and  the  visible  state  of  things  must  be 
brought  within  some  such  approximate  point 
as  one  hundred  millions  of  years. 

Few  adherents  to  Mr.  Darwin  would  presume 
that  the  extensive  effects  attributed  to  Natural 
Selection  could   be   accomplished  within  any 


DEMANDS   OF   TIME  AND   CHANGE,        225 

such  period.  We  must  therefore  postulate 
a  vastly  longer  period,  and  refute  the  conclu- 
sions of  Sir  William  Thomson,  and  show  by 
others  that  many  more  millions  of  years  have 
elapsed  in  terrestrial  life-history.  The  theory 
of  the  gradual  dissipation  of  energy  is  avail- 
able against  the  immense  time  required  by 
Darwin's  Natural  Selection  ;  and  is  well  applied 
by  the  writer  of  the  review  article  above  alluded 
to.  A  brief  summary  in  his  own  words  will  be 
interesting  : — ''Darwin's  theory  requires  count- 
less ages,  during  which  the  earth  shall  have 
been  habitable,  and  he  claims  geological  evi- 
dence as  showing  an  inconceivably  great  lapse 
of  time,  and  as  not  being  in  contradiction  with 
inconceivably  greater  periods  than  are  even 
geologically  indicated, — periods  of  rest  be- 
tween formations,  and  periods  anterior  to  our 
so-called  first  formations,  during  which  the  ru- 
dimentary organs  of  the  early  fossils  became 
degraded  from  their  primeval  uses.  In  answer, 
it  is  shown  that  a  general  physical  law  obtains, 
irreconcileable  with  the  persistence  of  active 
change  at  a  constant  rate ;  in  any  portion  of 
the  universe,  however  large,  only  a  certain  ca- 
pacity for  change  exists,  so  that  every  change 
which  occurs  renders  the  possibility  of  future 

15 


226  JVNAT  IS  NATURAL  SELECT/ON. 


change  less,  and  on  the  whole  the  rapidity  oi 
violence  of  changes  tends  to  diminish.  Not 
only  would  this  law  gradually  entail  in  the  fu- 
ture the  death  of  all  beings  and  cessation  of  all 
change  in  the  planetary  system,  and  in  the  past 
point  to  a  state  of  previous  violence  equally  in- 
consistent with  life,  if  no  energy  were  lost  by 
the  system,  but  this  gradual  decay  from  a  pre- 
vious state  of  violence  is  rendered  far  more 
rapid  by  the  continual  loss  of  energy  going  on 
by  means  of  radiation.  This  general  concep- 
tion points  either  to  a  beginning,  or  to  the 
equally  inconceivable  idea  of  infinite  energy  in 
finite  materials." 

Although  we  have  partly  included  Natural 
Selection  in  the  foregoing  considerations  re- 
specting the  theory  before  us,  we  have  not 
adverted  so  specially  to  that  supposed  agent 
as  we  now  proceed  to  do.  Its  alleged  effects 
have  been  estimated,  but  we  here  desire  to 
inquire  what  the  principle  itself  is  ;  whether  it 
be  mere  words,  or  a  metaphor,  or  a  personifica- 
tion, or  anything  that  is  clearly  definable. 

Natural  Selection.  All  readers  know  that 
this  is  Mr.  Darwin's  chief  factor  in  numerous 
changes,  preservations,  and  transmutations. 
Human  Selection  brln^^s  about  in  animals  the 


WHAT  IS  NATURAL  SELECT/ON.  227 

attributes  most  useful  to  man,  or  most  admired 
by  man.  Natural  Selection  secures  the  attri- 
butes most  useful  to  the  animal.  The  question 
is  not  whether  or  not  there  be  in  Nature  some 
such  principle  as  this,  since  there  plainly  is, 
and  in  continual  operation  ;  but  to  admit  thus 
much  is  very  different  from  adopting-  the  view 
of  Darwin,  that  by  processes  like  those  of  hu- 
man selection,  differences  maybe  accumulated, 
though  far  more  slowly,  yet  so  surely,  that 
these  additions  may  be  carried  in  the  course  of 
vastly  long  periods  of  time  to  so  great  an  ex- 
tent as  to  produce  every  known  species  of  ani- 
mal from  one  or  two  pairs,  and  perhaps  from 
organisms  of  the  lowest  known  types. 

A  patient  examination  of  the  book  *'  On 
Origin  of  Species,"  is  required  in  order  to 
arrive  at  what  the  author  himself  appears  to 
mean  by  this  term.  In  one  page  he  says,  "The 
preservation  of  favourable  variations,  and  the 
rejection  of  injurious  variations,  I  call  Natural 
Selection ;  "  in  another  page  this  is  called 
''  Nature's  power  of  selection."  In  the  fourth 
chapter  he  remarks,  "  It  has  been  said  that 
I  speak  of  Natural  Selection  as  an  active 
power  or  Deity,  but  who  objects  to  an  author 
speaking  of  the  attraction  of  gravity  as  ruling 


228  WHAT  IS  NATURAL  SELECTION. 


the  movements  of  the  planets  ?  Every  one 
knows  what  is  meant  and  is  implied  by  such 
metaphorical  expressions,  and  they  are  almost 
necessary  for  brevity.  So,  again,  it  is  difficult 
to  avoid  personifying-  the  word  Nature ;  but  I 
mean  by  Nature  only  the  aggregate  action  and 
product  of  many  natural  laws,  and  by-laws  the 
sequence  of  events  as  ascertained  by  us." 

So  far  this  is  clear  enough,  and  we  learn 
that  Natural  Selection  is  merely  a  metaphorical 
expression  ;  but  we  are  not  told  for  what.  Yet 
the  principal  agent  in  an  enormous  series  of 
long-continued  operations  must  be  surely  some- 
thing more  than  a  metaphorical  expression. 
Some  power  is  said  to  operate  universally 
and  uninterruptedly.  That  power  has  wrought 
through  countless  ages,  and  has  changed  the 
face  of  the  organic  world.  What,  then,  is  it  ? 
What  underlies  the  metaphorical  expression  ? 

But  wonderful  attributes  are  given  to  this 
metaphorical  expression.  Whatever  it  be,  it  is 
more,  for  it  exercises  a  prescient  and  elective 
will ;  it  chooses  and  rejects  ;  it  preserves  the 
good  and  the  ornamental ;  it  passes  by  the 
weak,  the  ugly,  the  sickly,  the  useless.  What 
can  that  be  which  affects  this  choice,  and  suc- 
ceeds   unerringly    in    securing  it?      "Natural 


DIFFICULTIES  AND  INCONSISTENCIES,     229 

Selection,"  we  are  assured,  *' can  only  act 
through  and  for  the  good  of  each  being." 
Here  indeed  is  a  great  difficulty — a  something, 
or  some  agent,  foresees  and  employs  means, 
works  the  greatest  results  in  Nature,  finds  out 
and  appreciates  the  good,  and  acts  only  for  the 
good  of  each  being.  Nevertheless,  the  author 
is  displeased  when  he  is  charged  with  using  it 
as  an  active  power  or  Deity."  If  it  be  neither, 
it  does  the  work  of  both.  Stranger  still,  the 
very  author  who  seems  to  disclaim  the  employ- 
ment of  this  metaphor  as  intimating  an  active 
power  or  Deity,  elsewhere  informs  us  that 
''  Natural  Selection  is  a  power  incessantly 
ready  for  action,  and  is  as  immeasurably  supe- 
rior to  man's  feeble  efforts,  as  the  works  of 
Nature  are  to  those  of  Art !  " 

If  the  expression,  the  Survival  of  the  Fittest, 
be  substituted  for  Natural  Selection,  some  of 
the  preceding  discrepancies  would  disappear ; 
but  then  the  former  expression  would  only  in- 
dicate a  result,  and  not  an  agent;  and  Mr. 
Darwin's  distinctive  factor  would  nearly  dis- 
appear at  the  same  time.  I  do  not  see  how 
the  conclusion  can  be  evaded,  that  if  Natural 
Selection  is  merely  a  metaphorical  expression, 
the  whole  of  what  is  attributed  to  it  is  -attri- 


230  METAPHORICAL  EXPRESSIONS. 

buted  to  a  metaphor,  which  must  be  a  veil  for 
some  unexpressed  reality;  and  if  the  whole 
result  be  not  metaphorical,  yet  it  is  certainly 
attached  to  what  confessedly  is  so. 

A  similar  objection  does  not  lie  against  the 
use  of  the  word  Nature,  when  we  adopt  that  as 
^professedly  metaphorical  expression,  and  when 
we  do  not  set  up  Nature  as  an  agent  in  the  place 
of  Deity ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  plainly  affirm 
that  Nature  is  the  work  of  God,  though  He  is 
distinct  from  it,  and  is  not  to  be  confounded  or 
consubstantiated  with  it. 

If  Natural  Selection  be  employed  as  a  Pan- 
theistic term,  we  can  understand  its  use,  and 
place  it  in  the  same  rank  as  Spinoza's  Natitra 
iiaturans.  But  if  the  Creator  is  occasionally 
referred  to  as  some  power  and  existence  dis- 
tinct from  Natural  Selection,  as  remote  from  it, 
as  not  necessarily  connected  with  it,  our  per- 
plexity remains. 

Upon  the  perusal  of  Mr.  Darwin's  ''  Descent 
of  Man,"  I  find  no  deliverance  from  this  per- 
plexity. The  term  still  appears  to  be  a  meta- 
phorical expression.  Far  wider  use  indeed  is 
made  of  it  in  the  two  volumes  of  the  new  book, 
and  another  great  power  is  associated  with  it ; 
but  what  it  really  signifies,  presuming  that  the 


LIMITS  TO  NATURAL   SELECTIONS.        231 

author  would  still  be  disposed  to  disown  it  as 
an  active  power  or  Deity,  is  uncertain.  Truly 
has  the  author  confessed  "in  the  literal  sense 
of  the  word,  no  doubt,  natural  selection  is  a 
false  term." 

One  thing,  however,  is  apparent,  and  that  is 
that  Mr.  Darwin  now  materially  limits  the  in- 
fluence of  this  metaphorical  principle,  even 
while  he  endeavours  to  extend  it  other  than 
to  man.  These  are  his  words  (vol.  i,  p.  152). 
"  Thus  a  very  large  and  undefined  extension 
may  safely  be  given  to  the  direct  and  indirect 
results  of  natural  selection,  but  I  now  admit, 
after  reading  the  essay  by  Nageli  on  plants, 
and  the  remarks  by  various  authors  with  re- 
spect to  animals,  more  especially  those  recently 
made  by  Professor  Broca,  that  in  the  earlier 
editions  of  my  *  Origin  of  Species'  I  probably 
attributed  too  much  to  the  action  of  Natural 
Selection  or  the  Survival  of  the  Fittest.  I  have 
altered  the  fifth  edition  of  the  Origin  so  as  to 
confine  my  remarks  to  adaptive  changes  of 
structure.  I  had  not  formerly  sufficiently  con- 
sidered the  existence  of  many  structures  which 
appear  to  be,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  neither 
beneficial  nor  injurious,  and  this  I  believe  to  be 
one  of  the  greatest  oversights  as  yet  detected 


232  SEXUAL   SELECTION, 

in  my  work.  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  as 
some  excuse,  that  I  had  two  distinct  objects  in 
view,  partly  to  show  that  species  had  not  been 
separately  created,  and  secondly,  that  natural 
selection  had  been  the  chief  agent  in  the  change, 
though  largely  aided  by  the  inherited  effects  of 
habit,  and  slightly  by  the  direct  action  of  the 
surrounding  conditions  ....  If  I  have  erred  in 
giving  to  natural  selection  great  power,  which  I 
am  far  from  admitting,  or  in  having  exaggerated 
its  power,  which  is  in  itself  probable,  I  have  at 
least,  as  I  hope,  done  good  service  in  aiding  to 
overthrow  the  dogma  of  separate  creations." 

In  this  his  new  work  on  the  Descent  of  Man, 
Mr.  Darwin  has  introduced  a  new  metaphorical 
character  under  the  name  of  Sexual  Selection. 
We  feel  precluded  by  the  nature  of  the  subject 
from  writing  about  it  as  freely  as  Mr.  Darwin 
has  done,  because  we  here  address  general 
readers  of  both  sexes,  and  possibly  Mr.  Dar- 
win is  not  supposed  to  address  them,  but  to 
confine  himself  especially  to  naturalists.  We 
may,  however,  venture  to  speak  of  the  extent 
and  efficacy  of  the  principle  as  Mr.  Darwin 
employs  it,  and  to  enquire  as  to  its  real  value, 
and  as  to  what  conception  its  propounder 
appears  to  form  of  it. 


SEXUAL  SELECTION.  233 

In  reference  to  extent  of  efficacy  it  appears 
to  be  a  rival  of  Natural  Selection  ;  one  of  two 
Consuls  in  conjoined  power;  either  a  king* 
or  a  queen,  when  both  are  co-regent.  The 
efficiency  of  Sexual  Selection  must  be  great 
indeed,  for  it  extends  over  the  larger  portion 
of  Mr.  Darwin's  new  work,  occupying  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  second  volume  and  almost  one-half 
of  the  first.  It  "appears  to  have  acted  as 
powerfully  on  man,  as  on  many  other  animals." 
*' Yet,"  says  Mr.  Darwin,  ''  I  do  not  pretend  the 
effects  of  Sexual  Selection  can  be  indicated  with 
scientific  precision  ;  but  it  can  be  shown  that 
it  would  be  an  inexplicable  fact  if  man  had  not 
been  modified  by  this  agency  which  has  acted 
so  powerfully  on  innumerable  animals,  both 
high  and  low  in  the  scale."  To  treat  the  sub- 
ject in  a  fitting  manner,  the  author  passes  the 
whole  animal  kingdom  in  review  in  connection 
with  this  new  and  potent  agent.  Although, 
however,  its  operation  is  coextensive  with,  it  is 
stated  that  it  **  acts  in  a  less  rigorous  manner 
than  Natural  Selection.  The  latter  produces 
its  effects  by  the  life  or  death  at  all  ages  of  the 
more  or  less  successful  individuals.  Death, 
indeed,  not  rarely  ensues  from  the  conduct  of 
rival  males.     But  generally  the  less  successful 


234  SEXUAL   SELECTION. 

male  merely  tries  to  obtain  a  female,  or  obtains, 
later  in  the  season,  a  retarded  and  less  vigorous 
female,  so  that  they  have  fewer,  or  less  vigor- 
ous, or  no  offspring." 

As  we  proceed  in  these  volumes,  we  are  more 
and  more  surprised  at  the  activity  of  this  newly 
introduced  factor,  and  we  are  the  more  impa- 
tient to  demand  what  it  essentially  is.  The 
only  answer  to  this  inquiry  discoverable  in  the 
book  is  that  it  is  an  agency.  Well  then,  if  an 
agency,  there  must  be  an  agent  who  employs  it, 
and  upon  whose  mode  of  employment  the 
whole  effects  of  the  agency  depend.  If  an 
agency,  it  cannot  properly  be  said  to  do  any- 
thing independently ;  therefore  as  an  original 
principle,  it  has  no  tangible  existence.  As- 
suredly these  inferences  cannot  be  denied,  they 
are  to  all  plainly  logical.  The  conclusion  we 
draw  from  the  author's  admission  of  mere 
agency,  and  his  confessed  inability  to  indicate 
the  effects  of  Sexual  Selection  with  scientific  pre- 
cision, is  that  a  mode  of  action  and  its  effect  are 
in  this  instance  indefinitely  illustrated.  In  short, 
while  there  are  many  results  in  Nature  which 
exhibit  the  influence  of  sex,  and  which  always 
have  exhibited  it  to  every  careful  observer, 
there  are  likewise  more  things  which  Mr.  Dar- 


SEXUAL   SELECTION.  235 

win  has  industriously  accumulated,  and  bor- 
rowed from  various  naturalists,  all  of  which 
simply  corroborate  the  same  influence.  Wher- 
ever there  is  sex,  there  are  sexual  attraction, 
and  sexual  conditions  and  consequences.  But 
that  Mr.  Darwin  has  overstrained  this  principle 
in  his  late  publication,  even  his  warm  friends 
acknowledge.  Let  any  scientific  man  only 
attempt  to  state  what  Sexual  Selection  essen- 
tially is,  as  introduced  in  the  book  before  us, 
and  he  must  certainly  add  something  of  his 
own,  or  diminish  or  modify  what  Mr.  Darwin 
has  said. 

No  naturalist,  no  common  observer  of  Nature 
denies  the  vast  influence  of  sex ;  it  is  a  truism 
to  say  that  it  is  coextensive  with  the  existence 
of  sex.  Wherever  there  is  sex,  there  is  sexu- 
ality. The  Creator  designed  it  to  be  so,  and  it 
is  so.  The  Creator  employs  it,  and  it  fulfils  His 
purposes.  It  is  nothing  more  or  less  than 
an  instrument  in  His  hand — a  powerful  and 
perfectly  adapted  instrument — and  when  it  se- 
cures all  the  results  He  intended,  it  is  after  all 
nothing  more  than  an  instrument.  It  would 
have  effected  nothing  without  Him,  and  with- 
out Him  it  would  not  have  been  in  operation. 

Precisely  the  same  is  predicable  of  Natural 


236  SEVERAL  NEW  PRINCIPLES, 


Selection.     Join  it  with  Sexual  Selection,  and 
we    have    two    instruments    instead    of    one. 
Neither   of  them   is  self-sufficing — neither    is 
more  than  an  agency.     To  these  two  effective 
instruments  others  may  in   time   be  added  by 
other  naturalists.     Others  indeed  come  under 
Mr.  Darwin's  view.     They  all   have  their  ap- 
propriate spheres  of  operation,  and  the  theme 
for  perpetual   admiration  is  that   they  are  so 
wonderfully    and   perfectly   adjusted    to   each 
other.  In  this  opens  a  new  field  of  research  and 
of  approach  towards  the  Divine  Being.   We  dis- 
cover His  methods  in  Natural  and  Sexual  Selec- 
tion, Heredity,  Equilibrium,  and  other  agencies 
to  which  distinctive  names  are  given.       In  the 
same  manner  a  human  artificer  may  distinguish 
his  tools  ;  but  who  expects  the  tools,  however 
named,  to  perform  the  work  of  the   artificer 
who  uses  them  ?     Or,  if  these  things  be  repre- 
sented as  parts  of  a  complicated  machine,  and 
if    therefore    by   its    complexity   we    are   hin- 
dered from  regarding  them  in  their  simplest 
significance,  nevertheless    the    most   complex 
machine  requires  its  prime  mover,   and  apart 
from  that,  complexity  is  only    hopeless    con- 
fusion, and  multiplicity  of  parts  only  a  bar  to 
efficiency. 


MR.    WALLACE  AS  EXPOUNDER.  237 

Mr.  Darwin  before  the  publication  of  his  work 
on  Man,  had  several  expounders  of  his  views, 
who  were  also  apologists  for  thern.  One  of 
the  ablest  of  these,  Mr.  A.  R.  Wallace,  arrests 
our  attention  by  the  fact  of  his  having-  been 
a  co-discoverer  with  Mr.  Darwin  of  the  agency 
of  Natural  Selection.  The  course  of  our  im- 
mediately preceding  observations  brings  us  to 
Mr.  Wallace's  statement  of  Mr.  Darwin's 
views,  which  is  here  introduced. 


238  DARWINIAN  LAWS. 


XII. 

METHOD    OF    DIVINE    OPERATIONS.— CREA- 
TION,   OR    CREATION  BY  LAW, 

]\ /TR.  DARWIN'S  work,  says  Mr.  Wallace, 
^^ ^  has  for  its  main  object  to  show  that  all 
the  phenomena  of  living-  things — all  their  won- 
derful organs  and  complicated  structure,  their 
infinite  variety  of  form,  size,  and  colour,  their  in- 
tricate and  involved  relations  to  each  other, — 
may  have  been  produced  by  the  action  of  a  few 
general  laws  of  the  simplest  kind,  laws  which 
in  most  cases  are  mere  statements  of  admitted 
facts.  The  chief  of  these  laws  or  facts  are  the 
following : — 

I.  The  Laiv  of  Multiplication  in  Geometrical 
Progression, — All  organized  beings  have  enor- 
mous powers  of  multiplication.  Even  man  who 
increases  slower  than  all  other  animals,  could 
under  favourable  circumstances  double  his 
number  every  fifteen  years,  or  a  hundred-fold 


DARWINIAN  LAWS.  239 


in  a  century.  Many  animals  and  plants  could 
increase  their  numbers  from  ten  to  a  thousand- 
fold every  year. 

2.  Tiie  Laiv  of  Limited  Populations.  —  The 
number  of  living  individuals  of  each  species  in 
any  country,  or  in  the  whole  globe,  is  practically 
stationary ;  whence  it  follows  that  the  whole  of 
this  enormous  increase  must  die  off  almost  as 
fast  as  produced,  except  only  those  individuals 
for  whom  room  is  made  by  the  death  of  parents. 
As  a  simple  but  striking  example,  take  an  oak 
forest.  Every  oak  will  drop  annually  thousands 
or  millions  of  acorns,  but  till  an  old  tree  falls, 
not  one  of  these  millions  can  growup  into  an  oak. 
They  must  die  at  various  stages  of  growth. 

3.  The  Law  of  Heredity.,  07^  Likeness  of  Off- 
spring  to  their  Parents, — This  is  a  universal,  but 
not  an  absolute  law.  All  creatures  resemble 
their  parents  in  a  high  degree,  and  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases  very  accurately ;  so  that  even 
peculiarities,  of  whatever  kind,  in  the  parents, 
are  almost  always  transmitted  to  some  of  the 
offspring. 

4.  The  Law  of  Variation. — This  is  fully  ex- 
pressed by  the  lines  : — 

"  No  being  on  this  earthly  ball 
Is  like  another,  all  in  all." 


240  DAR  WINIAN  LA  TVS. 


Offspring  resemble  their  parents  very  much, 
but  not  wholly — each  being  possesses  its  indi- 
viduality. This  variation  itself  varies  in  amount 
but  is  always  present,  not  only  in  the  whole 
being,  but  in  every  part  of  every  being.  Every 
organ,  every  character,  every  feeling,  is  indi- 
vidual ;  that  is  to  say,  m^^ics  from  the  same 
organ,  character,  or  feeling,  in  every  other  in- 
dividual. 

5.  T/ie  Law  of  incr easily g  change  of  Physical 
Co7iditions  ttpoii  the  stuface  of  the  Earth. — Geo- 
logy shows  us  that  this  change  has  always  gone 
on  in  times  past,  and  we  also  know  that  it  is 
now  every^where  going  on. 

6.  The  EquilibriiLvi  or  Harmony  of  Nature. 
When  a  species  is  well  adapted  to  the  condi- 
tions which  environ  it,  it  flourishes  ;  when  im- 
perfectly adapted,  it  decays  ;  when  ill-adapted, 
it  becomes  extinct.  If  all  the  conditions  which 
determine  an  organism's  well-being  are  taken 
into  consideration,  this  statement  can  hardly 
be  disputed. 

*'  This  series  of  facts  or  laws  are  mere  state- 
ments of  what  is  the  condition  of  Nature. 
They  are  facts  or  impressions  which  are  gene- 
rally known,  generally  admitted,  but  in  dis- 
cussing the  subject  of  the  Origin  of  Species, 


MR.  WALLACE'S  EXPOSITION.  .741 

as  generally  forgotten.  It  is  from  these  uni- 
versally admitted  facts  that  the  origin  of  all  the 
varied  forms  of  Nature  may  be  deduced  by  a 
logical  train  of  reasoning,  which  is,  however, 
at  every  step  verified,  and  shown  to  be  in  strict 
accord  with  facts  ;  and  at  the  same  time,  many 
curious  phenomena,  which  can  by  no  other 
means  be  understood,  are  explained  and  ac- 
counted for.  It  is  probable  that  these  primary 
facts  or  laws  are  but  results  of  the  very  nature 
of  life,  and  of  the  essential  properties  of  organ 
ized  and  unorganized  matter."  * 

**  The  question  then  is,"  continues  Mr 
Wallace,  ''  Whether  the  variety,  the  harmony, 
the  contrivance,  and  the  beauty  we  perceive  in 
organic  beings  can  have  been  produced  by  the 
action  of  these  laws  alone,  or  whether  we  are 
required  to  believe  in  the  incessant  interference 
and  direct  action  of  the  mind  and  will  of  the 
Creator?  It  is  simply  a  question  of  how  the 
Creator  has  worked.  The  Duke  of  Argyll, 
(and  I  quote  him  as  having  well  expressed  the 
views  of  the  more  intelligent  of  Mr.  Darwin's 
opponents),  maintains  that  He  has  personally 
applied  general  laws  to  produce  effects,  which 

*  A.  R.  Wallace.     "  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Natural 
Selection,"  1870,  p.  265. 

16 


24-2  A   SELF-REGULATING   UNIVERSE. 

these  laws  are  not  in  themselves  capable  of 
producing ;  that  the  universe  alone,  with  all 
its  laws  intact,  would  be  a  sort  of  chaos,  with- 
out variety,  without  harmony,  without  design, 
without  beauty ;  that  there  is  not  (and  therefore 
we  may  presume  that  there  could  not  be)  any 
self-developing  power  in  the  universe.  I  be- 
lieve, on  the  contrary,  that  the  universe  is  so 
constituted  as  to  be  self-regulating ;  that  as 
long  as  it  contains  Life,  the  forms  under  which 
that  life  is  manifested  have  an  inherent  power 
of  adjustment  to  each  other  and  to  surrounding 
Nature  ;  and  that  this  adjustment  necessarily 
leads  to  the  greatest  amount  of  variety,  and 
beauty,  and  enjoyment,  because  it  does  depend 
on  general  laws  and  not  on  a  continual  super- 
vision and  rearrangement  of  details.  As  a 
matter  of  feeling  and  religion,  I  hold  this  to  be 
a  far  higher  conception  of  the  Creator  and  of 
the  Universe  than  that  which  we  may  call  the 
"-  continual  interference  "  hypothesis  ;  but  it  is 
not  a  question  to  be  decided  by  our  feelings  or 
convictions,  it  is  a  question  of  facts  and  of  reason. 
Could  the  change,  which  Geology  shows  us 
has  ever  taken  place  in  the  forms  of  life,  have 
been  produced  by  general  laws,  or  does  it  im- 
peratively require  the  incessant  supervision   of 


MEANING   OF  LAWS  OF  NATURE.  243 

a  creative  mind  ?  This  is  the  question  for  us 
to  consider,  and  our  opponents  have  the  diffi- 
cult task  of  proving  a  negative,  if  we  show 
that  these  are  both  facts  and  analysis  in  our 
favour." 

So  far  the  difference  is  clearly  stated,  and 
the  reader  may  choose  his  own  views.  But  we 
are  here  led  to  consider  what  a  law  of  Nature 
means,  and  on  the  determination  of  its  signi- 
ficance depends  that  of  Creation  by  Law.  Now 
the  expression  Law  of  Nature  means  nothing 
more  than  the  metJiod  of  intelligent  agency.  As 
a  law,  it  is  the  product  of  a  lawgiver,  and 
as  a  law  of  Nature  it  is  an  evidence  of  his 
governance.  Wherever  there  are  many  such 
laws,  his  intelligence  is  seen  to  be  mani- 
fold ;  where  they  operate  irresistibly  and  con- 
tinually, his  power  is  added  to  his  intelligence, 
and  these  combined  cannot  fall  short  of  Deity. 
The  existence  and  the  operation  of  these  laws 
enable  us  to  understand  that  the  God  of  Nature 
is  actually  present  in  controlling  Nature. 

Men  speak  of  the  Laws  of  Nature  as  if  they 
really  intimately  knew  them  as  independent 
activities.  Yet  what  are  they  to  us  except 
formulae  ?  what  but  expressions  of  the  con- 
stancy of  phenomena  ?   We  are  unable  to  com- 


CREA  TION  BY  LA  IV. 


prehend  one  Law  of  Nature  in  its  entirety.  We 
cannot  grasp  its  application,  its  extent,  its  unity 
Only  in  some  of  its  effects  do  we  see  it,  and 
only  in  some  of  our  symbols  do  we  express  it. 
Who  shall  say  where  one  single  law  begins  and 
ends  its  sway,  where  it  is  interwoven  with  an- 
other law,  and  where  limited  and  modified  by 
that  other?  Nature,  Man,  all  created  things, 
exist,  it  is  true,  under  the  dominion  of  Law,  in 
the  sense  that  they  are  all  governed.  There  is 
not,  there  cannot  be  an  ungoverned  thing  in  the 
universe ;  but  it  is  only  the  Administrator  of 
all  who  discerns  all  those  laws  in  their  remotest 
reach  and  their  entire  influence. 

**  Creation  by  Law,"  is  the  title  of  a  con- 
siderable chapter  in  Mr.  Wallace's  book,  and 
as  it  is  reprinted  "  with  improvements,"  in  his 
book,  after  having  originally  appeared  in  the 
Quarterly  Jouinial  of  Science,  we  conclude  that 
its  author  has  thoroughly  considered  and  ela- 
borated it ;  but  he  does  not  clearly  define  what 
he  understands  by  its  title.  What,  we  repeat,  is 
the  strict  meaning. of  Creation  by  Law?  What 
is  a  creative  law  ?  If  it  means  anything  philo- 
sophical, it  must  be  supposed  to  signify  the 
law,  or  rule,  or  method  which  the  Creator  has 
prescribed  to  Himself  in  the  act  of  creating. 


CREA  TION  BY  LA  IV.  245 


The  act  of  creating  exhibits  the  method  or  law 
which,  apart  from  such  act,  can  have  no  exis- 
tence. If  it  have,  where  does  it  exist  ?  where 
does  it  operate  ?  Its  appearance,  its  existence 
is  witnessed  only  in  creation.  Is  it  an  activity 
impressed  upon  matter  ?  Then  matter  be- 
comes creative.  This  is  a  result  to  which  un- 
happily much  of  the  current  physical  teaching 
appears  to  lead ;  but  Mr.  Wallace  is  not,  as  I 
read  him,  a  materialist,  but  rather  the  ex 
treme  opposite. 

Now  if  matter  have  not  impressed  upon  it 
any  creative  law,  and  if,  therefore,  there  be  no 
inherent  creative  activity  in  matter^  the  law 
exists  outside  of  matter ;  but  outside  of  matter 
whatever  still  acts  upon  matter,  is  surely  some- 
thing else,  is  something  higher,  and  must  be 
Spirit ;  and  if  spirit,  and  possessing  the  power 
to  produce  effects  which  all  but  Atheists  ac- 
knowledge to  be  the  works  of  Omnipotence, 
then  we  arrive  at  the  identification  of  the 
imaginary  self-existing  law  with  Divine  energy. 
Creation  by  law,  therefore,  can  be  nothing  less 
nor  more  than  creation  by  the  Creator.  There 
cannot  be  two  essentially  different  kinds  of  cre- 
ation, one  by  the  Creator  himself  directly,  and 
another  by  law,  except  mediately.     Our  im.per- 


246  CREA  TION  B  V  LA  IV. 

fection  may  justify  us  in  using  the  term  Law, 
but  we  must  always  bear  in  mind  that  it  really 
means  method,  or  rule  of  acting. 

I  venture  to  submit  that  not  only  this  par- 
ticular phrase  ''  Creation  by  Law,"  but  also 
many  similar  phrases,  as  I  have  shown  in  refer- 
ence to  Natural  Selection,  are  thoroughly  and 
injuriously  illusory.  When  phrases  respecting 
the  Deity  and  His  actions  are  confessedly  in- 
adequate to  the  truth  they  shadow  forth,  the 
case  is  very  different,  and  no  injury  follows. 
For  example,  when  we  speak  of  the  hand  of 
God,  no  one  is  deluded  by  the  word  hand ;  and 
so  of  a  hundred  phrases  employed  by  reason 
of  human  impotence.  But  when  any  sym- 
bolical expression  is  used  to  support  a  theory, 
and  to  form  an  important  theological  or  anti- 
theological  or  philosophical  distinction,  inade- 
quacy cannot  be  pleaded;  and  the  evil  effect  of 
proposing  a  broad  distinction  between  Creation 
by  Law  and  other  creation,  is  an  illustration 
to  the  point.  The  one  allows  the  Creator  to  be 
immediately  present,  the  other  seems  to  suppose 
that  He  is  in  some  manner  absent;  that  Law  takes 
His  place  in  His  absence,  and  creates  without 
Him,  as  a  vicegerent;  that  Law  receives  and 
remembers  and  accomplishes  His  commands. 


DIVINE  INTERFERENCE.  247 


The  inveterate  habit  of  opposing  law  to 
perpetual  Divine  action,  and  government  by 
law  to  government  in  person,  and  operations 
by  law,  to  operations  in  person,  does  appear  to 
me  to  be  productive  of  much  mischief  and 
much  confusion.  If  this  view  be  correct,  then 
we  need  not  be  perplexed  by  the  reproach  of 
**  incessant  interference." 

No  intelligent  Christian  entertains  an  idea 
of  a  continual  *' interference "  of  Divine 
power;  the  imputation  originates  with  oppo- 
nents. Interference  is  a  term  utterly  inappli- 
cable to  Omnipotence,  utterly  incompatible 
with  Omnipresence,  and  quite  as  much  so  with 
Omniscience.  The  Being  who  foresees  all, 
who  is  present  with  all,  and  who  can  do  all, 
can  never,  in  any  sense,  interfere  with  Him- 
self Never  can  He  come  between  the  se- 
quences which  He  himself  has  pre-ordained  ; 
never  can  there  be  any  necessity  for  inter- 
ference— less  still  for  incessant  interference — 
when  the  Omnipotent  is  executing  by  law  His 
own  designs,  and  accomplishing  His  ulterior 
purposes.  To  apply  such  a  term  to  Him  as 
interference  arises  from  a  fundamental  miscon- 
ception of  His  character. 

Were  this  line  of  argument  generally  under- 


248  PERFECTION  OF  LAWS. 

Stood  and  admitted,  it  appears  to  me  (thoug-h 
it  may  not  so  appear  to  others),  that  we  should 
escape  these  and  other  difficulties  to  which  cer- 
tain traditional  phraseology  exposes  us.  To 
the  Divine  Being  Himself  there  can  be  no  such 
distinction  as  Natural  and  Supernatural.  To 
attempt  to  draw  such  a  distinction  is  pardon- 
able on  the  part  of  a  creature,  but  it  has  no 
underlying-  reality.  In  sailing  over  the  ocean 
of  far-stretching  life,  our  vessel  makes  a  mark 
which  to  us  seems  strong  and  decisive,  but 
which  he  who  looks  upon  it  a  little  longer  dis- 
cerns to  be  speedily  obliterated.  All  our  pro- 
visional laws  of  science  areas  quickly  obliterated 
when  we  regard  them  from  a  higher  point  than 
conventional  phraseology.  There  doubtless 
are  laws  which  pervade  and  regulate  the 
whole  ocean  of  existence,  inorganic,  organic, 
and  spiritual.  These  do  not  interfere,  but  co- 
operate with  each  other.  They  are  graduated, 
fitted,  and  appropriately  applied.  A  perpetual 
Divine  supremacy  secures  the  graduation,  the 
aptitude,  and  the  successful  application  of  them 
all.  The  Divine  Unity  effects  uniformity  in 
their  operations.  In  respect  of  physical  law, 
all  physical  phenomena  are  evidences  of  the 
uniformity  of  its  operation.     This,   indeed,   is 


PERPETUAL  ACTION.  249 


what  men  in  science  so  zealously  contend  for. 
Well,  then,  establish  it  generally,  and  all 
created  things  are  not  the  mere  result  of  the 
operation  of  law,  but  primarily  the  result  of 
the  action  of  the  Divine  Being  immediately 
and  perpetually  acting  by  law,  never  for  a 
moment  absent  from  the  exercise  of  law,  never 
for  an  instant  leaving  it  to  itself,  even  if  it  could 
exist  by  itself.  If  we  could  conceive  of  a  single 
active  atom  of  creation  apart  from  the  control 
and  influence  of  its  Creator,  we  could  conceive 
of  an  atomic  interference,  and  thence  ascend  to 
a  massive  interference.  But  as  this  is  incon- 
ceivable by  any  man  who  acknowledges  God's 
omnipresence,  as  well  as  His  omnipotence,  the 
entire  charge  of  invoking  continual  interference 
falls  to  the  ground.  Our  opponents  attempt  to 
impale  us  on  one  horn  of  a  dilemma  which  is  of 
their  own  making.  Recognize  the  Christian's 
conception  of  God  and  His  attributes,  and  it  is 
not  we  who  have  to  prove  a  negative,  but  they. 

In  considering  creation,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  many  think  its  explanation  to  be 
beyond  the  reach  of  all  natural  science.  Mr. 
Mivart  puts  forth  a  caution  of  this  kind  when 
he  writes  : — "  It  may  be  well  to  remind  some 
readers  that  belief  in  the  existence  of  God,  in 


250  PRIMARY  INTUITIONS. 


His  primary  creation   of  the  universe,  and  in 
His  derivative  creation  of  all   kinds  of  being, 
inorganic  and  organic,  do  not   repose  on  phy- 
sical   phenomena,    but    on   primary  intuitions. 
To   deny  or  ridicule  any  of  these  beliefs   on 
physical  grounds   is  to  commit  the  fallacy  of 
io-noratio  elenchi.       It  is  to  commit  an  absurdity 
analogous  to  that  of  saying  a  blind  child  could 
not  recognize  his  father  because  he  could  not 
see  him,  forgetting  that  he  could  hear  ox  feel 
him.     Yet  there  are  some  who  appear  to  find  it 
unreasonable  and  absurd  that  men  should  regard 
phenomena  in  a  light  not  furnished  by,  or  de- 
ducible  from  the  very  phenomena  themselves, 
although  the  men  so  regarding  them  avow  that 
the  light  in  which  they  do  view  them   comes 
quite  from  another  source." 

Of  the  right  bearing  of  these  observations 
no  Christian  reader  will  entertain  much  doubt, 
and  so  soon  as  it  is  admitted  that  this  class  of 
truths  rests  not  on  phenomena,  but  on  our  pri- 
mary intuitions  together  with  Revelation,  other 
formidable  difficulties  disappear.  Mr.  Spencer 
regards  the  conception  of  God  as  the  absolute 
originator  of  the  universe  without  the  employ- 

o 

ment  of  any  pre-existing  material  or  means,  as 
a  wholly  illegitimate  symbolic   conception,  as 


PRIMARY  INTUITIONS.  251 

much  SO  as  the  atheistic.  He  estimates  as 
equally  difficult  of  belief  the  idea  of  the  self- 
existent  Creator  and  a  self-existent  universe. 
To  this  Mr.  Mivart  properly  replies,  *'  both  of 
course  are  equally  ujiimagmable,  but  it  is  not  a 
question  of  facility  of  conception — not  which  is 
easiest  to  conceive,  but  which  best  accounts  for 
and  accords  with  psychological  facts  ;  namely 
with  the  above-mentioned  intuitions.  It  is  con- 
tended that  we  have  these  primary  intuitions, 
and  that  with  these  the  conception  of  a  self-ex- 
isting Creator  is  perfectly  harmonious.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  notion  of  a  self-existing 
universe — that  there  is  no  real  distinction  be- 
tween  the  finite  and  the  infinite — that  the  uni- 
verse and  ourselves  are  one  and  the  same 
things  with  the  infinite  and  the  self-existent ; 
these  assertions  in  addition  to  being  unimagin- 
able, contradict  our  primary  intuitions." 

We  have  the  testimony  of  Biblical  revelation 
and  its  accordance  with  our  primary  intuitions. 
*'  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and 
the  earth."  Here  original  creation  is  declared 
to  be  directly  and  immediately  the  act  of  God. 
This  is  the  assertion  of  a  fact  which  no  human 
science  could  have  discovered,  and  which  none 
can  ever  disprove.     It  lies  out  of  the  sphere  of 


252  DERIVATIVE  CREATION, 


science,  and  is  antecedent  to  it.  We  novv^  come 
to  secondary  acts  of  creation.  *'  Much  confu- 
sion," says  Mr.  Mivart,  "  has  arisen  from  not 
keeping  clearly  in  view  this  distinction  between 
absolute  creation  and  derivative  creation.  With 
the  first  physical  science  has  plainly  nothing 
whatever  to  do,  and  is  impotent  to  prove  or 
refute  it.  The  second  is  also  safe  from  any 
attack  on  the  part  of  physical  science,  for  it  is 
primarily  derived  from  psychical,  not  physical 
phenomena.  The  greater  part  of  the  apparent 
force  possessed  by  objectors  to  creation,  like 
Mr.  Darwin,  lies  in  their  treating  of  the  asser- 
tion of  derivative  creation,  as  if  it  were  an  as- 
sertion of  absolute  creation,  or  at  least  of  su- 
pernatural action." 

So  far  I  agree  with  Mr.  Mivart,  but  must 
partly  differ  from  him  as  to  the  necessity  of 
drawing  a  strong  line  where  he  draws  it ;  and 
more  largely  if  not  entirely  from  Mr.  Darwin's 
method  of  viewing  the  subject.  If  what  I  have 
previously  advanced  be  justified,  then  the  term 
"  Special  Creation  "  is  not  strictly  appropriate, 
for  nothing  can  be  special  which  may  be  uni- 
versal under  the  same  actor,  and  nothing  can 
be  exceptional  which  with  him  may  be  uniform 
and  continuous. 


THE  CHARGE   OF  UNWORTHINESS.         253 


If  there  be  an  omnipotent  Creator,  who  can 
create  at  all,  the  same  Being  can  create  all. 
With  Him  speciality  is  not  a  distinction,  while 
all  creation  is  solely  his  own  act.  If  it  be  un- 
worthy of  Him  to  act  specially,  it  may  be  (not  it 
is)  equally  unworthy  of  Him  to  create  primarily. 
Allow  that  He  has  created  one  primordial  germ, 
and  why  should  He  not  create  many — a  multi- 
tude of  germs?  If  the  one  act  is  not  unsuitable  to 
Him,  why  should  many  more  of  the  same  kind 
be  so  ?  In  respect  of  unworthiness,  the  charge 
is  plainly  groundless,  after  the  admission  of 
any  creation,  even  should  that  be  limited  to 
one  primordial  germ.  This  argument  for  un- 
worthiness has  been  so  strongly  insisted  upon 
by  some,  that  it  becomes  desirable  to  show  its 
total  lack  of  force.  In  no  measure  can  we  apply 
it  to  the  Divine  Being  on  the  grounds  supposed  ; 
nor  does  it  apply  to  a  wise  human  constructor. 
A  man  constructs  a  single  mechanism,  and  that 
is  designed  to  execute  certain  ends.  Who  of 
his  fellow-men  will  presume  to  say  that  this 
constructor  acts  unworthily  in  making  many 
more  similar  machines,  or  in  varying  them,  or 
in  multiplying  them  with  modifications,  and 
particular  adaptations  ?  Does  repetition  render 
him  unworthy,   does  multiplication  lower    his 


254         THE  CHARGE  OF  UN  WORTHINESS. 

character?  Is  his  genius  less  because  he 
shows  it  more  ?  Is  the  Deity  then  less  adorable 
because  he  creates  many  creatures,  and  repeats, 
multiplies,  and  varies  forms  without  end  ? 

*'  Others,"  says  the  A^ort/i  BritisJi  Reviewer, 
*'  seriously  allege  that  it  is  more  consonant 
with  a  lofty  idea  of  the  Creator's  action  to  sup- 
pose that  he  produced  beings  by  Natural  Se- 
lection, rather  than  by  the  finikin  process  of 
making  each  separate  little  race  by  the  exercise 
of  Almighty  power.  The  argument,  such  as  it 
is,  means  simply  that  the  user  of  it  thinks  that 
this  is  how  he  personally  would  act  if  possessed 
of  Almighty  power  and  knowledge,  but  his 
speculations  as  to  his  probable  feelings  and 
actions  after  such  a  great  change  of  circum- 
stances are  not  worth  much. ' '  We  are  accused, 
it  may  be  repeated,  of  anthropomorphizing  the 
Deity  by  our  attachment  to  him  of  design,  and 
purpose,  and  contrivance.  Verily  equally  guilty 
of  humanizing  Him,  are  they  who  build  theories 
upon  the  supposition  that  He  does  operate  in 
the  way  they  would.  A  prophet  of  old  time 
has  already  furnished  an  answer  to  them — in 
this,  and  in  many  other  similar  objections. 
''  For  my  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts, 
neither  are  your  ways  my  ways,  saith  the  Lord. 


THE   CHARGE   OF  UNWORTHINESS.        255 

For  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth, 
so  are  my  ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and 
my  thoughts  than  your  thoughts." — Isaiah 
Iv.  8-9. 

Some  theorists,  and  notably  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer,  have  reprobated  as  strongly,  and  in 
terms  more  severe  than  Mr.  Darwin,  the  so- 
called  dogma  of  Special  Creations.  Mr.  Spencer 
argues  that  we  have  never  seen  Special  Crea- 
tions, that  we  have  no  testimony  to  their  actuality, 
that  our  belief  in  them  is  the  consequence  of  a 
certain  kind  of  education — and  that  it  will 
vanish  before  the  progress  and  the  process  of 
perfecting  Natural  Science.  It  may  vanish  or 
it  may  not — but  either  result  will  not  be  the 
test  of  the  truth — in  any  degree.  Even  if  it 
should  entirely  vanish  from  the  acceptance  of 
physicists  and  naturalists,  it  may  revive,  and  re- 
tain vitality  in  the  minds  of  Christians — though 
I  do  not  assert  that  it  will.  What,  however, 
may  be  safely  asserted  is,  that  it  does  not,  and 
will  not  necessarily  rest  upon  a  question  of 
continual  interference.  What  it  must  rest  upon, 
is  on  questions  of  Evolution,  or  Pantheism,  or 
Atheism.  Recognize  the  Omnipotent  as  the 
Creator,  and  then  it  inevitably  follows  that  He 
may  create  as  He  will,  when  He  will,  and  how 


2c6  EVOLUTION. 


He  will.  If  we  with  limited  faculties  assign 
limits  to  His  creative  fiat,  the  limitation  exists 
in  our  apprehensions,  in  our  construction  of 
Him,  but  not  in  Himself. 

Evolution  is  regarded  as  opposed  to  Divine 
presence,  and  it  is  opposed  to  it  by  extreme 
Evolutionists.  This  opposition,  however,  be- 
longs to  and  springs  from  them,  and  is  not  a 
necessary  constituent  of  the  hypothesis,  as  it 
may  be  materially  modified. 

The  earnest  and  increased  study  of  Nature 
in  our  day  leads  us  to  much  broader  views  of 
Divine  action  than  have  been  formerly  enter- 
tained ;  and  to  these  views  Natural  Science 
conducts  us  without  really  leading  us  away  from 
the  Deity.  Just  as  we  now  discover  more  and 
more  geographically,  so  we  discern  more  and 
more  theologically.  The  earth  is  far  larger  to 
us  than  to  Herodotus  ;  Columbus  was  a  far 
better  geographer  than  the  Grecian  ;  but  the 
discovery  of  America  did  not  annul  the  exis- 
tence of  England  or  Spain.  The  discovery  of 
new  stars  does  not  extinguish  the  old  stars, 
does  not  darken  one  beam  of  their  light.  In 
like  m.anner,  the  discovery  of  Natural  and 
Sexual  Selection,  or  rather  the  application  of 
them,  does  not  limit  the  action  of  the  Creator; 


EVOLUTION  DEMANDS  AN  EVOLVER.       257 


nor  does  the  reproach  of  incessant  interference 
in  the  least  degree  affect  His  operations.  The 
shadows  with  which  we  darkea  or  obscure  Him 
are  only  those  of  our  own  projection. 

What  can  we  say  of  Evolution  ?  If  we  treat  it 
reverently,  and  not  atheistically,  we  can  only 
say  that  it  presupposes  an  evolver,  and  that 
such  an  evolver  must  be  Divine.  The  mae- 
nitude,  the  continuity,  the  certainty  of  Evolution, 
its  progress  and  its  results,  must  comprehend 
an  evolver,  and  this  again  must  comprehend 
God.  Abolish,  if  you  can,  the  dogma  of 
Special  Creation,  and  substitute  for  it  what  you 
name  Evolution.  Employ  all  the  science  at 
your  command  to  establish  it,  and  after  all  and 
by  all  you  establish  the  Evolver.  Of  Him  you 
cannot  rid  this  earth,  of  Him  you  cannot  rid 
the  universe.  All  harmonious  evolution,  un- 
spontaneous  evolution,  orderly,  purposed,  and 
planned  evolution,- must  include  the  idea  of  God. 
Self-evolution,  spontaneous  evolution,  evolu- 
tion without  personal  will  or  previous  plan  of 
purpose,  are  each  and  all  contradictory.  The 
act  of  unfolding  necessitates  the  existence  or 
one  who  unfolds.  The  results  of  unfolding 
display  his  character,  as  well  as  his  action. 

The  7nan7ier  of  his  unfolding  is  the  true  and 

17 


258      EVOLUTION  DEMANDS   AN  EVOLVER. 

limited  province  of  physical  inquiry;  yet  a 
noble  province  it  is,  rich  in  results,  fair  with 
flowers  by  the  wayside,  and  abundant  in  pro- 
mise for  future  ages.  Men  are  observers  of 
natural  development,  whether  or  not  included 
in  it;  they  watch  its  progress  in  other  exist- 
ences with  deep  interest.  Every  advance  in  it 
is  fitted  to  impress  the  beholder  with  admira- 
tion, and  to  direct  him  not  only  to  the  advance 
itself,  but  to  convert  him  from  a  mere  interpre- 
ter of  stage  after  stage  into  an  obedient  servant 
and  reverent  worshipper  of  the  grand  Evolver. 
While  man  acts  merely  as  an  interpreter  and 
recorder,  he  will  study  the  laws  which  regulate 
the  methods  of  Evolution,  and  will  see  design 
in  every  method  and  contrivance,  and  adapta- 
tion in  every  stage.  To  discover  and  expound 
the  methods  of  Evolution  demands  the  utmost 
powers  of  physicists  of  all  branches.  Mechan- 
icians, Electricians,  Chemists,  Biologists,  Phy- 
siologists, and  Geologists  are  all  students  of 
methods,  or  means.  Every  newly  ascertained 
law,  every  more  lucid  definition  of  laws,  all 
co-ordinations  of  laws,  tend  to  the  same  de- 
sirable and  valuable  end.  The  exponent  of 
them  is  an  elucidator  of  their  present  stage, 
and  of  its  connection  with  preceding  stages  of 


EVOLUTION  ONLY  A   METHOD.  259 


Evolution.  The  entire  Cosmos  is  an  aggregate 
of  combined  evolutions.  These  are  many  to 
us,  but  one  to  the  Evolver. 

The  more  I  can  understand  of  the  manner  of 
Evolution,  the  more  am  I  impressed  with  its 
unity  of  purpose,  even  in  full  view  of  its  multi- 
plicity of  parts,  and  manifoldness  of  stages. 
From  increase  of  such  knowledge  I  rise  into 
higher  perceptions.  I  see  rhythm  in  every 
motion  on  the  earth,  rhythm  therefore  in 
combined  motions,  a  wonderful  rhythm  per- 
vading the  Cosmos.  The  manner  is  Nature's 
music.     The  end  is  Divine  harmony. 

All  this,  too,  is  not  only  consistent  with  strict 
physical  science,  but  is  a  consequence  of  it;  while 
there  are  other  sciences  and  other  consequences 
of  which  it  takes  no  note.  It  records  things  and 
organisms  in  their  several  places  and  their  na- 
tural order.  It  grows  in  comprehensiveness,  it 
aims  at  the  Cosmos — why  not  ?  The  Cosmos 
is  a  magnificent  manifestation  of  order. 

In  such  a  light,  whatever  title  you  bestow  on 
the  unfolding  of  the  parts  and  purposes  in  the 
Cosmos,  is  of  slight  moment;  whether  you  call 
it  Creation,  or  Evolution,  or  Development,  you 
do  not  change  the  phenomena,  or  alter  the 
actual    conditions.     But    if    you    confound    a 


26o  HERBERT  SPENCER'S  EVOLUTION. 

particular  mean  or  method  with  the  evolving 
power,  with  the  acting  and  sufficient  principle 
of  the  evolution,  then  you  do  alter  the  condi- 
tions ;  you  substitute  human  figments  for  the 
Divine  Being,  and  you  make  otherwise  allow- 
able names  objectionable  from  the  narrow  and 
exclusive  use  to  which  you  put  them. 

The  most  systematic  builder  of  an  Evolu- 
tionary Theory  in  the  English  language  is  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer.  Unhappily  his  entire  system 
is  pervaded  by  views  which  positively  oppose 
themselves  to  Christian  tenets.  When,  however, 
he  is  read  as  a  mere  exponent  of  method, 
without  regard  to  original  principles,  great 
advantage  may  be  derived  from  his  clearness 
and  his  firm  grasp  of  the  details  of  his  subject. 
The  unity  of  Evolution  as  comprehended 
by  the  Cosmos,  is  aptly  described  by  Mr. 
Spencer,  who  shows  the  higher  generalization 
of  our  knowledge  concerning  Evolution  to  be, 
—so  far  as  we  know  the  constitution  of  the 
world, — one  unceasing  and  all  perfecting  sys- 
tem, advancing  everywhere  and  in  all. 

After  elaborately  working  out  his  own  theory, 
Mr.  Spencer  suggestively  intimates  that  the 
laws  of  Evolution,  contemplated  as  holding 
true    of  each    order   of  existence   separately, 


HERBERT  SPENCER'S  EVOLUTION.  261 


hold  true   Vv^hen    we  contemplate  the   several 
orders  of  existences  as  forming  together  one 
natural  whole.    While  we  think  of  Evolution  as 
divided  into  Astronomic,  Biologic,  Psychologic, 
Sociologic,    etc.,    it    may   seem    to    a   certain 
extent    a    coincidence    that    the    same    law  of 
metamorphosis   holds  throughout  all   its  divi- 
sions.    But  when  we  recognize  these  divisions 
as    mere    conventional     groupings    made    to 
facilitate   the  arrangement  and  acquisition  of 
knowledge  —  when    we    regard    the    different 
existences  with  which  they  deal  as  component 
parts  of  one    Cosmos — we   see   at  once    that 
there    are    not   several    kinds    of    Evolution 
having    certain    traits    in    common,    but   one 
Evolution  going  on  everywhere  after  the  same 
manner.     While  any  whole  is  evolving,  there 
is  always  going  on  an  Evolution  of  the  parts 
into  which  it  divides  itself.      This  holds  true  of 
the    totality  of  things    as    made  up    of  parts 
within    parts  from   the    greatest  down   to    the 
smallest.     We  know  that   while    a   physically 
cohering    aggregate   like  the  human  body  is 
getting  larger,  and  taking  on  its  general  shape, 
each  of  its   organs  is  doing  the   same;    that 
while   each  organ    is   growing  and    becoming 
unlike  others,  there  is  going  on  a  differentiation 


262         HERBERT  SPENCER'S  EVOLUTION. 

and  integration  of  its  component  tissues  and 
vessels;  and  that  even  the  components  of 
these  components  are  severally  increasing  and 
passing  into  more  definitely  heterogeneous 
structures.  But  we  have  not  duly  remarked 
that  setting  out  with  the  human  body  as  a 
minute  part,  and  ascending  from  it  to  the 
greater  parts,  this  simultaneity  of  transforma- 
tion is  equally  manifest  ;  that  while  each 
individual  is  developing,  the  society  of  which 
he  is  an  insignificant  unit  is  developing  too; 
that  while  the  aggregate  mass  forming  a 
society  is  becoming  more  definitely  hetero- 
geneous, so  likewise  is  that  total  aggregate, 
the  Earth,  of  which  the  society  is  an  inappre- 
ciable portion ;  that  while  the  Earth,  which  in 
bulk  is  not  a  millionth  of  the  solar  system, 
progresses  towards  its  concentrated  and  com- 
plex structure,  the  solar  system  similarly 
progresses  ;  and  that  even  its  transformations 
are  but  those  of  a  scarcely  appreciable  portion 
of  our  sidereal  system,  which  has  at  the  same 
time  been  going  through  parallel  changes. 

*'  So  understood,  Evolution  becomes  not  one 
in  principle  only,  but  one  in  fact.  There  are 
not  many  metamorphoses  similarly  carried  on  ; 
but  there  is  a  single  metamorphosis  universally 


MODIFIED  EVOLUTION.  263 


progressing,  wherever  the  reverse  metamor- 
phosis has  not  set  in.  In  any  locality,  great  or 
small,  throughout  space,  where  the  occupying 
matter  acquires  an  appreciable  individuahty,  or 
distinguishableness  from  other  matter,  there 
Evolution  goes  on ;  or  rather  the  acquirement 
of  this  appreciable  individuality  in  the  com- 
mencement of  Evolution.  And  this  holds 
uniformly  ;  regardless  of  the  size  of  the  aggre- 
gate, regardless  of  its  inclusion  in  other 
aggregates,  and  regardless  of  the  wider 
Evolutions  within  which  its  own  is  compre- 
hended."* 

Quite  apart  from,  or  in  entire  opposition  to 
Mr.  Spencer's  peculiar  opinions,  whatever  may 
be  the  factors  producing  Evolution,  the  theory 
itself  may  be  so  modified  as  to  express  gradua- 
tion, and  thus  may  include  creational  action, 
purpose,  and  all  that  is  associated  with  modern 
ideas  of  the  Divine  attributes  in  relation  to 
Nature.  It  may  be  used  as  a  term  expressive  on 
the  largest  scale  of  what  we  daily  see  displayed 
on  a  small  scale.  In  Embryology,  Evolution 
is  the  mode  of  educing  the  growth  and  com- 
pletion of  the  individual,  and  it  may  be  fairly 
applied  to  the    growth    and   completion   of  a 

*  "First  Principles."     Second  Edition,  1867,  p.  546. 


264  MODIFIED  EVOLUTION. 


collection  of  individuals,  always  pre-supposing- 
that  neither  could  take  effect  without  Divine, 
and  therefore  intelligent  causation  in  continual 
activity. 

Under  such  conditions  many  of  the  expo- 
sitions of  Darwin,  Spencer,  and  their  friends 
may  rest  on  their  proper  merits.  *'  It  is  inte- 
resting-," says  Mr.  Darwin  at  the  close  of  his 
*  Origin  of  Species,'  "  to  contemplate  an  en- 
tangled bank  clothed  with  many  plants  of  many 
kinds,  with  birds  singing-  on  the  bushes,  with 
various  insects  flitting-  about,  and  with  worms 
crawling  through  the  damp  earth,  and  to  re- 
flect that  these  elaborately  constituted  forms, 
so  different  from  each  other,  and  dependent 
on  each  other  in  so  complex  a  manner,  have 
all  been  produced  by  laws  acting  around  us." 
And  further : — *'  There  is  grandeur  in  this  view 
of  life  with  its  several  powers,  having  been 
originally  breathed  by  the  Creator  into  a  few 
forms  or  into  one ;  and  that  while  this  planet 
has  gone  cycling  on  according  to  the  fixed  lav/ 
of  gravity,  from  so  simple  a  beginning,  endless 
forms,  most  beautiful  and  most  wonderful,  have 
been  and  are  being  evolved." 

*'  With  the  feeling  expressed  in  these  two 
sentences,"  said  Professor  Sir  William  Thom- 


SIR  WILLIAM   THOMSON'S  REMARKS.      265 

son,  after  quoting  them  in  his  presidential 
address  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation (in  1871),  "I  most  cordially  sympathize 
— I  have  omitted  two  sentences  which  come 
between  them,  describing  briefly  the  hypothesis 
of  the  Origin  of  Species  by  Natural  Selection, 
because  I  have  always  felt  that  this  hypothesis 
does  not  contain  the  true  theory  of  Evolution, 
if  evolution  there  has  been  in  Biology.  Sir  John 
Herschel,  in  expressing  a  favourable  judgment 
on  the  hypothesis  of  Zoological  Evolution,  with, 
however,  some  reserve  in  respect  to  the  origin  of 
man,  objected  to  the  doctrine  of  Natural  Selec- 
tion, that  it  was  too  like  the  Laputan  method 
of  making  books,  and  that  it  did  not  sufficiently 
take  into  account  a  continually  guiding  and 
controlHng  intelligence.  This  seems  to  me  a 
most  valuable  and  instructive  criticism.  I  feel 
profoundly  convinced  that  the  argument  of  de- 
sign has  been  greatly  too  much  lost  sight  of 
in  recent  zoological  speculations.  Reaction 
against  the  frivolities  of  teleology,  such  as  are  to 
be  found,  not  rarely,  in  the  notes  of  the  learned 
commentators  on  Paley's  Natural  Theology, 
has,  I  believe,  had  a  temporary  effect  in  turning 
attention  from  the  solid  and  irrefragable  argu- 
ment so  well  put  forward  in  that  excellent  old 


266  AIIND  IN  NATURE. 

book.  But  overpoweringly  strong  proofs  of 
intelligent  and  benevolent  design  lie  all  around 
us,  and  if  ever  perplexities,  whether  metaphy- 
sical or  scientific,  turn  us  away  from  them  for 
a  time,  they  come  back  upon  us  with  irresistible 
force,  showing  to  us  through  Nature  the  influence 
of  a  free  will,  and  teaching  us  that  all  living 
beings  depend  on  one  ever-acting  Creator  and 
Ruler." 

It  is  then  manifest,  that  at  least  some  of  the 
most  eminent  men  of  science,  who  incline  to 
Evolution  at  all,  lean  to  it,  not  atheistically,  but 
as  consistent  with  intelligence,  design,  and 
benevolence.  One  other  quotation  to  the 
same  effect  is  appended  from  the  book  of  an 
American  author,  which  may  not  come  before 
many  readers  in  this  country  :  *'  In  the  succes- 
sion of  beings  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  type, 
and  a  consentaneous  greater  degree  of  compli- 
cation, we  have  the  strongest  proof  of  an  in- 
telligent Being,  designing,  ordaining,  and  con- 
'trolling.  The  laws  of  the  older  physicists  were 
not  claimed  to  be  derived  from  an  intelligence; 
they  were  deemed  to  exhibit  the  necessary 
operations  of  matter  upon  matter ;  but  when 
we  see  that  these  laws  have  an  order,  and,  as 
they  are  understood  at  the  present  day,  a  rate 


FACTORS  OF  EVOLUTION.  267 

of  succession  in  their  operations,  which  have  the 
stamp  of  thoughtfulness  impressed  upon  them, 
it  is  impossible  not  to  discover  that  they  do  not 
work  of  their  own  accord,  but  are  controlled  by 
a  creative  forethought  and  design.  If  the  pro- 
duct of  these  causes  was  a  heterogeneous  mix- 
ture of  beings,  with  no  relation  whatever  among 
themselves,  then  one  might  more  plausibly 
claim  that  the  so-called  physical  causes  had 
produced  living  creatures.  As  it  is,  though,  we 
have  before  us  animals  allied  to  each  other  by 
progressive  relations,  which  finally,  if  we  fol- 
low them  up,  end  in  the  highest  forms  of  life 
at  the  present  day,  from  having  begun  with  the 
lowest,  and  ascended.  What  mere  non-intelli- 
gent causation  could  produce  the  like  ?"  * 

With  the  opinions  of  Spencer  and  Darwin 
and  others  on  the  causes  or  factors  of  Evolution, 
the  case  is  very  different.  When  Mr.  Spencer 
asks,  and  endeavours  to  answer  the  question, 
*' How  is  Organic  Evolution  caused?"  he  as- 
signs the  oauses  to  (i)  External  Factors,  and 
(2)  Internal  Factors.  Amongst  the  former 
there  are  astronomical  and  geological  changes, 
meteorologic  and  organic  agencies,  and  others 
all    at   work  from   without    on    each    species 

Mind  in  Nature,"  by  H.  J.  Clark.     New  York,  1865. 


if  ii 


268  FACTORS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

of  organization.  Amongst  Internal  Factors 
are  certain  principal  terms  which  cannot  be 
popularly  explained  in  a  limited  space — such 
as  Direct  and  Indirect  Equilibration.  All  the 
factors  co-operate  in  effecting  the  evolution. 
Those  universal  laws  of  the  re-distribution  of 
matter  and  motion,  to  which  things  in  general 
conform,  are  conformed  to  by  all  living  things ; 
whether  considered  in  their  individual  histories, 
in  their  histories  as  species,  or  in  their 
aggregate  history."  ^'The  progressive  inner 
changes,  for  which  we  find  a  cause  in  the  con- 
tinuous outer  changes,  conform  so  far  as  we 
can  trace  them,  to  that  universal  law  of  the  in- 
stability of  the  homogeneous  which  is  mani- 
fested throughout  evolution  in  general.  We 
see  that  in  organisms,  as  in  all  other  things,  the 
exposure  of  different  parts  to  different  kinds  and 
amounts  of  incident  forces,  has  necessitated 
their  differentiation  ;  and  that  for  the  like  rea- 
son, aggregates  of  individuals  have  been 
lapsing  into  varieties,  and  species,  and  genera, 
and  classes.  We  also  see  that  in  each  type  of 
organism,  as  in  the  aggregate  of  types,  the 
multiplication  of  effects  has  continually  aided 
this  transition  from  a  more  homogeneous  to  a 
more  heterogeneous  state.     Finally,  we  have 


FACTORS  OF  EVOLUTION.  269 


found  that  each  change  of  structure,  superposed 
on  preceding  changes,  has  been  a  re-equilibrium 
necessitated  by  the  disturbance  of  a  preceding 
equilibrium.  The  maintenance  of  life  being 
the  maintenance  of  a  balanced  combination 
of  functions,  it  follows  that  individuals  and 
species  that  have  continued  to  live,  are  indi- 
viduals and  species  in  which  balance  of  func- 
tions has  not  been  overthrown.  Inevitably, 
therefore,  survival  through  successive  changes 
of  conditions,  implies  successive  adjustments  of 
the  balance  to  new  conditions.  The  actions 
that  are  here  specified  are  in  reality  simul- 
taneous ;  and  they  must  be  so  conceived  before 
organic  evolution  can  be  rightly  understood."  * 
As  to  these  factors,  the  same  questions  I 
have  asked  respecting  Natural  Selection,  Sex- 
ual Selection,  and  Creation  by  Law,  might  be 
here  repeated.  What  are  these  external  and 
internal  factors  ?  What  are  Homogeneousness, 
Heterogeneity,  Integration,  Differentiation, 
Equilibration,  and  all  the  other  terms  which 
Mr.  Spencer  adopts  and  applies  as  factors  in  his 
great  and  all-embracing  scheme  of  Evolution  ? 
Are  they  mere  names,  or  are  they  objective 
entities  ?     If   the    latter,    what    and   where   is 

*  *'  Principles  of  Biology,"  Vol.  i. 


FACTORS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


their  objective  existence  ?  It  must  be  at  once 
admitted  that  they  have  no  objective  existence, 
and  that  they  are  nothing  more  than  verbal 
representations  of  Mr.  Spencer's  ideas.  They 
may  be  apt  or  inapt,  sound  or  unsound ;  they 
may  express  changes  that  really  are  exhibited 
in  Evolution,  and  the  impression  derived  from 
reading  Mr.  Spencer's  book  is  that  they  are 
apt,  relative  terms,  and  do  represent  in  some 
degree  the  manner  in  which  Evolution  may  be 
supposed  to  take  place.  When,  however,  this 
is  granted,  little  more  can  be  said  in  their 
favour,  while  in  respect  of  their  being  the 
causes,  they  are  not  the  first  or  last  conceiva- 
ble causes  in  the  vast  scheme  of  Evolution.  As 
to  their  h^mg  factoTS  in  the  sense  of  ;;/^/7;/^and 
progressively  fashioning  and  perfecting  Evolu- 
tion— it  seems  hard  to  imagine  that  any  intelli- 
gent person  can  so  regard  them.  * 

We  know  what  factors  are  in  mathematical 
language,  viz.,  mere  symbols  or  signs,  or  ele- 
vients  of  products.  Are  they  intended  to  be  any- 
thing more  in  Spencerian  or  scientific  language? 
If  more,  how  much  more  ?      If  the  same,  then 

*  With  Mr.  Spencer  ''  the  persistence  of  force  is  the  deepest 
knowable  cause  of  those  modifications  which  constitute  physi- 
ological development ;  as  it  is  the  deepest  knowable  cause  of  all 
other  evolution." 


FACTORS  OF  EVOLUTION.  271 

we  agree  in  the  meaning  of  the  words,  but  differ 
totally  from  all  those  who  employ  them  even 
relatively,  and  as  representing  active  entities — ■ 
inherent,  definite,  causative  entities — and  as 
and  by  themselves,  producing  observed  effects. 

A  reader  of  Mr.  Spencer's  or  Mr.  Darwin's 
books  who  accepts  this  limitation  in  relation  to 
factors,  need  not  be  deluded  by  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  used,  or  the  hypothetical  ends 
to  which  they  are  applied  by  these  authors. 
Over  and  above  their  factors  exists  the  con- 
trolling Prime  Factor,  who  is  employing  such 
methods  of  action  as  these  terms  indicate,  or 
methods  similar  to  them,  and  who  is  energizing 
and  combining,  destroying  and  creating,  distri- 
buting and  redistributing — in  one  word  evolving^ 
or  more  plainly, — ceaselessly  ?^;?/c'/(//;?^,  fold  after 
fold,  form  after  form,  age  after  age,  world  upon 
world,  for  His  own  grand  purposes,  of  which 
we  see  but  a  small  part ;  a  glimpse,  or  a 
shadow,  or  a  passing  stage. 

Some  observations  upon  the  current  idea  of 
Evolution,  offered  by  Dr.  Lionel  S.  Beale  in  a 
little  book  termed  ''The  Mystery  of  Life," 
which  has  come  into  my  hands  while  I  am 
writing  these  pages  (187 1),  appear  to  be  appo- 
site. 


272  TERMS  NOT  EXPLANATIONS. 

"  Man,  as  well  as  man's  brain,  we  have  been 
told,  is  formed  by  '  Evolution.'  The  organs 
result  from  '  Evolution,'  and  the  higher  mental 
faculties  with  which  he  is  endowed,  like  the  in- 
strument of  which  these  are  the  supposed  func- 
tion, are  *  evolved'  from  the  more  simple.  So 
that  a  complex  structure  may  be  *  evolved 
from  a  simpler  structure,  and  a  complex  action 
from  a  more  simple  action.  But  '  Evolution,' 
like  many  other  terms  employed  in  the  Science 
of  our  day  for  the  purpose  of  accounting  for 
phenomena,  has  had  no  definite  meaning 
assigned  to  it.  To  say  that  a  thing  has  been 
formed  by  '  Evolution,'  conveys  information  less 
definite  and  less  correct  than  is  conveyed  by 
the  statement  that  it  has  been  derived  from  a 
pre-existing  living  thing.  The  formation  of 
tissue  has  been  attributed  to  '  vacuolation '  and 
'  differentiation,'  and  these  polysyllables  have 
lately  been  superseded  by  the  still  more  vague 
terms,  '  subtle  influences,'  and  '  external  condi- 
tions,' and  'sundry  circumstances.'  And  it 
h£.s  been  affirmed  that,  '  to  the  primitive  pro- 
perties of  the  molecules,'  and  '  Natural  Selec- 
tion,' may  be  referred  all  the  varying  forms  and 
structures  known  to  us,  as  well  as  the  pheno- 
mena of  the  living  w^orld.     But  such  terms  ex- 


PRETENTIOUS  PHRASES,  273 

plain  nothing.  By  their  use  further  inquiry  is 
discouraged,  and  the  mind  bent  upon  investi- 
gating the  secrets  of  Nature  is  misled  at  the 
very  outset.  Can  any  one  of  these  very  pre- 
tentious phrases  be  resolved  into  anything 
more  than  the  statement  of  a  fact  or  facts  in 
the  form  and  language  of  an  explanation? 
Natural  Selection  is  the  formation  of  species, 
and  species  are  produced  by  Natural  Selection. 
Crystallization  is  the  formation  of  crystals,  and 
crystals  are  produced  by  the  operation  of 
crystallization.  Tissues  are  formed  by  diffe- 
rentiation, and  differentiation  is  the  formation 
of  tissues  ;  and  so  on.  But  whether  formation 
be  attributed  to  '  subtle  influences,'  and  '  sun- 
dry circumstances,'  or  to  evil  influences,  witch- 
craft, or  the  influence  of  fairies,  can  surely  be 
of  very  little  consequence.  By  such  explana- 
tions, especially  if  conveyed  very  emphatically, 
and  with  authority,  the  unlearned  may  be 
astonished,  and  pleased,  and  confused,  and  im- 
posed upon,  but  those  who  put  forward  such 
explanations  do  not  convey  information,  and 
instead  of  promoting  the  advance  of  Natural 
Knowledge,  they  retard  real  progress." 

The  truth  is  that  the  term  '  Evolution,'  toge- 
ther with  others  continually  associated  with  it 

18 


274  EVOLUTION  ADAPTABLE. 

by  current  theorists,  seems  to  have  deluded 
many  persons  into  the  supposition  that  it  and 
they  represent  some  marvellous  discoveries — 
new  natural  powers — new  causes.  After  what 
has  been  already  advanced,  it  must  be  manifest 
such  a  supposition  is  a  specious  delusion.  The 
employment  of  new  terms  and  a  number  of 
well  or  ill-formed  words,  in  no  way  changes  the 
original  facts  and  phenomena.  Evolution  may 
be  turned  in  any  direction  the  supporter  of  it 
chooses.  As  you  add,  or  subtract,  or  consub- 
stantiate  the  Creator,  you  obtain  the  particular 
system  you  prefer. 

Evolution  maybe  made  Theistic,  or  Atheistic, 
Materialistic  or  Pantheistic,  in  accordance  with 
the  mood  of  its  framer's  mind.  The  same 
facts  and  phenomena  may  be  so  differently 
grouped,  and  so  variously  estimated  as  to  ap- 
pear to  support  any  one  of  these  systems. 
Although  I  believe  that  a  truthful  and  scien- 
tific arrangement  of  facts  conducts  to  Theism, 
and  that  the  march  of  Science  confirms  Theism, 
still  others  believe  differently.  Darwinism, 
Spencerism,  Comteism,  are  all  said  to  be  based 
on  facts,  and  the  advocate  of  each  will  say, 
"  My  theory  is  not  a  question  of  opinion,  but 
of  facts  and  phenomena."     The  adoption  then 


DERIVATIVE   CREATION.  275 

of  any  hypothesis  rests  upon  the  proposer's  way 
of  contemplating  things,  and  reasoning  about 
them.  Here  responsibility  forces  itself  upon 
us.  If  there  be  human  responsibility  for  the 
influences  and  consequences  of  our  philosophies 
and  creeds,  they  become  unspeakably  moment- 
ous to  us.  If  there  be  no  responsibility,  let  us 
divert  ourselves  with  any  theory  that  interests 
men  for  the  time.  Seize  the  passing  day,  seize 
the  prevalent  philosophy.  Whatever  it  be  now, 
in  the  end  it  will  be  nothing,  and  the  same 
holds  true  of  ourselves. 

Should  the  term  Evolution  be  disliked,  from 
its  usual  association  with  materialistic  views, 
then  another,  Derivative  Creation  may  be  sub- 
stituted. This  has  been  used  by  Mr.  Mivart 
in  the  Genesis  of  Species,  where  he  has  cited 
some  doctors,  or  authorities  amongst  Roman 
Catholics,  who  have  taken  a  like  view  of 
Creation.  St.  Augustine  seems  to  have  held 
such  opinions  of  this  kind,  and  a  decided 
distinction  was  established  between  forvial  and 
potential crediiion,  TYie  potentiality  or  derivation, 
however,  cannot  be  regarded  as  the  same  as 
Evolution.  Mr.  Mivart  takes  some  pains  to 
expose  Mr.  Darwin's  misconceptions  on  cre- 
ation, and  he  certainly  places  many  topics  in 


276  TELEOLOGICAL  EVOLUTION. 

a  clearer  light.  He  also  quotes  these  obser- 
vartions  of  Professor  Huxley,  which  as  coming 
from  him  are  worth  attention.  "It  is  necessary 
to  remark  that  there  is  a  wider  teleology,  which 
is  not  touched  by  the  doctrine  of  Evolution,  but 
is  actually  based  upon  the  fundamental  proposi- 
tion of  Evolution."  "  The  teleological  and  the 
mechanical  views  of  Nature  are  not  necessarily 
mutually  exclusive  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  more 
purely  a  mechanist  the  speculator  is,  the  more 
firmly  does  he  assume  a  primordial  molecular 
arrangement,  of  which  all  the  phenomena  in 
the  universe  are  the  consequences;  and  the  more 
completely  thereby  is  he  at  the  mercy  of  the 
teleologist,  who  can  always  defy  him  to  disprove 
that  the  primordial  molecular  arrangement  was 
not  intended  to  evolve  the  phenomena  of  the 
universe."  Professor  Huxley  proceeds  to  say 
that  the  mechanist  may,  in  turn,  demand  of 
the  teleologist  how  the  latter  learns  that  it  was 
intended ;  to  which  question  it  may  be  replied, 
he  knows  tiiis  as  a  necessary  truth  of  reason 
deduced  from  his  own  primary  intuitions,  which 
cannot  be  denied  without  absolute  scepticism. 

To  the  same  effect  Professor  Owen  is  cited, 
who  says  that  Natural  Evolution  *'  by  means  of 
slow  physical  and  organic  operations  through 


TELEOLOGICAL  EVOLUTION.  277 


long  ages  is  not  the  less  clearly  recognizable  as 
the  act  of  an  adaptive  mind,  because  we  have 
abandoned  the  old  error  of  supposing  it  to  be 
the  result  of  a  primary,  direct,  and  sudden  act 
of  creational  construction."  "  The  succession 
of  species,"  continues  the  Professor,  "  by  con- 
tinuously operating  law  is  not  necessarily  a 
*  blind  operation.'  Such  law,  however  discerned 
in  the  properties  and  successions  of  natural 
objects,  intimates,  nevertheless,  a  preconceived 
progress.  Organisms  may  be  evolved  in 
orderly  succession,  stage  after  stage,  towards 
a  foreseen  goal,  and  the  broad  features  of  the 
course  may  still  show  the  unmistakeable  im- 
press of  Divine  volition." 

These  views  though  merely  expressing  com- 
monly entertained  opinions  on  one  side,  acquire 
some  value  as  issuing  from  another  side  ;  and 
so  far  as  names  are  influential,  confirm  the 
views  previously  offered.  I  simply  carry  the 
same  views  onward  to  their  utmost  application, 
not  only  to  the  molecular,  but  to  the  entire 
constitution  of  the  cosmical  Evolution.  Not 
merely  do  I  think  that  "the  broad  features  of  the 
course,"  but  likewise  all  the  features,  great  and 
small,  wherever  they  are  recognized  by  us,  show 
the  unmistakeable  impress  of  Divine  volition. 


278  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN. 

Not  here  and  there  only  are  we  to  look  for  it, 
as  if  interruptive  or  exceptional,  but  everywhere 
and  altogether — without  limit  and  without  end. 

TJie  Evolution  of  Man  and  his  Faculties. — All 
systematic,  materialistic,  and  rigid  Evolution- 
ists, all  who  carry  out  their  principles  irre- 
spectively of  any  such  modifications  as  just 
suggested,  will  include  Man  as  one  of  the  re- 
sults or  examples  of  the  great  natural  operation. 
This  Mr.  Spencer  and  Mr.  Darwin  do,  as  a 
matter  of  principle  ;  the  former,  not  less  point- 
edly, but  only  as  forming  a  constituent  of  his 
system  ;  the  latter  with  fuller  detail,  with  some- 
what keener  sense  of  difficulties,  though  with 
equal  positiveness  and  occasional  dogmatism. 
His  details,  indeed,  fill  the  two  volumes  so 
widely  known  under  the  title  of  **  The  Descent 
of  Man." 

In  our  pages  it  would  be  quite  inappropriate 
to  enter  upon  a  particular  analysis,  or  deliber- 
ative estimate  of  Mr.  Darwin's  arguments,  or 
upon  a  literary  critique  of  his  volumes.  This, 
I  trust,  will  be  sufficiently  done  by  others;  cer- 
tainly the  book  will  be  extensively  read,  at  least 
as  a  collection  of  curious  facts  in  support  of  a 
famous  hypothesis.  Some  observations  on  fun- 
damental cjuestions  will  suffice  for  my  purpose, 


ORGANIC  EVOLUTION  OF  MAN.  279 

and   some  extracts  will  exhibit  Mr.  Darwin's 
views. 

He  has  no  hesitation  in  assigning-  the  whole 
Man  from  beginning  to  end,  his  body,  soul, 
and  spirit,  to  Natural  Evolution,  and  to  Evolu- 
tion by  the  modifying  action  of  Natural  and 
Sexual  Selection.  Viewed  in  this  light,  Man 
falls  to  be  considered  under  the  divisions  of 
Organic  and  Mental  Evolution. 

]3welling  for  the  present  on  Organic  Evolu- 
tion, we  find  Mr  Darwin  elaborating  his 
argument  upon  the  basis  he  previously  assumed 
in  his  *'  Origin  of  Species  :" — Man  and  all 
other  vertebrate  animals  have  been  constructed 
on  the  same  general  model,  they  pass  through 
the  same  stages  of  development,  and  they  retain 
certain  rudiments  in  common.  Consequently, 
we  ought  frankly  to  admit  their  community  of 
descent :  to  take  any  other  view,  is  to  admit 
that  our  own  structure,  and  that  of  all  the 
animals  around  us,  is  a  mere  snare  laid  to 
entrap  our  judgment.  This  conclusion  is 
greatly  strengthened,  if  we  look  to  the  numbers 
of  the  whole  animal  series,  and  consider  the 
evidence  derived  from  their  affinities  or  classi- 
fication, their  geographical  distribution,  and 
geological  succession.     It  is  only  our  natural 


28o  OUR  EARLY  PROGENITORS. 

prejudice,  and  that  arrogance  which  made  our 
forefathers  declare  that  they  were  descended 
from  demigods,  which  leads  us  to  demur  to 
this  conclusion.  But  the  time  will  before  lone 
come  when  it  will  be  thought  wonderful  that 
naturalists,  who  were  well  acquainted  with  the 
comparative  structure  of  man  and  other 
mammals,  should  have  believed  that  each  was 
the  work  of  a  separate  creation." 

The  fourth  chapter  of  the  work  treats  *'  On 
the  Manner  of  Development  of  Man  from  some 
Lower  Form,"  and  in  preceding  chapters,  the 
same  topic  is  further  illustrated.  His  "Affini- 
ties and  Genealogy"  are  detailed,  and  in  a 
chapter  devoted  to  them,  we  find  depicted  the 
structure  of  our  early  progenitors.  This  sketch 
is  so  characteristic  that  its  quotation  here  (with 
some  omissions  relating  to  sexual  conformation) 
will  be  highly  interesting. 

**We  will  now  look  to  man  as  he  exists; 
and  we  shall,  I  think,  be  able  to  restore  during 
successive  periods,  but  not  in  due  order  of 
time,  the  structure  of  our  early  progenitors. 
This  can  be  effected  by  means  of  the  rudiments 
which  man  still  retains,  by  the  characters 
w^hich  occasionally  make  their  appearance  in 
him  through  reversion,  and  by  the  aid  of  the 


OUR  EARLY  PROGENITORS,  281 

principles  of  morphology  and  embryology. 
The  various  facts  to  which  I  allude  have 
been  given  in  the  previous  chapters.  The 
early  progenitors  of  man  were  once  no  doubt 
covered  with  hair,  both  sexes  having  beards  ; 
their  ears  were  pointed  and  capable  of  move- 
ment; and  their  bodies  were  provided  with  a 
tail  having  the  proper  muscles.  Their  limbs 
and  bodies  were  also  acted  upon  by  many 
muscles  which  now  only  occasionally  re-appear, 
but  are  normally  present  in  the  Quadrumana. 
The  great  artery  and  nerve  of  the  humerus  ran 
through  a  supra-condyloid  foramen.  At  this, 
or  some  earlier  period,  the  intestine  gave  forth 
a  much  larger  diverticulum  or  coecum  than  that 
now  existing.  The  foot,  judging  from  the 
condition  of  the  great  toe  in  the  fetus,  was 
then  prehensile  ;  and  our  progenitors  were 
then  no  doubt  arboreal  in  their  habits,  fre- 
quenting some  warm,  forest-clad  land.  The 
males  were  provided  with  great  canine  teeth, 
which  served  them  as  formidable  weapons. 

'*  At  a  much  earlier  period  the  uterus  was 
double ;  and  the  eye  was  protected  by  a  third 
eyelid  or  nictitating  membrane.  At  a  still 
earlier  period  the  progenitors  of  man  must 
have    been   aquatic    in  their  habits ;  for  mor- 


2S2  OUR  EARLY  PROGENITORS. 

phology  plainly  tells  us  that  our  lungs  consist 
of  a  modified  swine-bladder,  which  once  served 
as  a  float.  The  clefts  on  the  neck  in  the 
embryo  of  man  show  where  the  branchiae  once 
existed.  At  about  this  period  the  true  kidneys 
w^ere  replaced  by  the  corpora  wolfflana.  The 
heart  existed  as  a  simple  pulsatory  vessel ;  and 
the  chorda  dorsalis  took  the  place  of  a  verte- 
brate column.  These  early  predecessors  of 
man,  thus  seen  in  the  dim  recesses  of  time, 
must  have  been  as  lowly  organized  as  the 
lancelet  or  amphioxus,  or  even  still  more 
lowly  organized."* 

Respecting  the  marked  grades  of  man's 
descent  this  summary  is  sufficient : — 

"  The  most  ancient  progenitors  in  the 
kingdom  of  the  Vertebrata,  at  which  we  are 
able  to  obtain  an  obscure  glance,  apparently 
consisted  of  a  group  of  marine  animals, 
resembling  the  larvee  of  existing  Ascidians. 
These  animals  gave  rise  to  a  group  of  fishes, 
as  lowly  organized  as  the  lancelet,  and  from 
these  the  Ganoids,  and  other  fishes  like  the 
Lepidosiren,  must  have  been  developed.  From 
such  fish  a  very  small  advance  would  carry  us 
on  to  the  Amphibians.     We   have   seen  that 

•  "  Descent  of  Man,"  Vol.  i.,  pp.  2o5— 7. 


OUR  EARLY  PROGENITORS.  283 

birds  and  reptiles  were  once  intimately  con- 
nected together ;  and  the  Monotremata  now 
in  a  slight  degree  connect  mammals  with 
reptiles.  But  no  one  can  at  present  say  by 
what  line  of  descent  the  three  higher  and 
related  classes,  namely,  mammals,  birds,  and 
reptiles,  were  derived  from  either  of  the  two 
lower  vertebrate  classes,  namely,  amphibians 
and  fishes.  In  the  class  of  mammals  the  steps 
are  not  difficult  to  conceive  which  led  from  the 
ancient  Monotremata  to  the  ancient  Marsupials; 
and  from  these  to  the  early  progenitors  of  the 
placental  mammals.  We  may  thus  ascend  to 
the  Lemuridoe;  and  the  interval  is  not  wide 
from  these  to  the  Simiadoe.  The  Simiadoe  then 
branched  off  into  two  great  stems,  the  New 
World  and  Old  World  monkeys  ;  and  from 
the  latter,  at  a  remote  period,  Man,  the  wonder 
and  glory  of  the  Universe,  proceeded."* 

Such  is  the  result  and  such  the  course  of  the 
operations  of  Natural  Selection,  and  Sexual 
Selection  in  slowly  perfecting  the  wonder  and 
glory  of  the  Universe.  This  hypothesis 
evidently  founds  itself  more  on  morphology 
than  physiology,  and  is  vulnerable  at  many 
points,  as  physiologists  will  perceive.     All  that 

*  Ibid.  pp.  212 — 213. 


284  MR.   WALLACE'  S  LIMITATIONS. 

is  advanced  in  opposition  to  the  origin  of 
species  applies  equally  to  the  case  of  the 
human  organism.  But  the  strength  of  the 
opposing  arguments  is  greatly  increased  by 
the  force  of  those  to  be  directed  as^ainst 
Mental  Evolution. 

It  is  very  instructive  to  find  that  even  Mr. 
Wallace,  the  anticipator  of  Mr.  Darwin,  or 
the  co-discoverer  with  him  of  Natural  Selection, 
hesitates  when  this  principle  is  fully  applied  to 
Man,  as  he  has  shown  in  his  chapter  on  *'  The 
Limits  of  Natural  Selection  as  applied  to 
Man  "  This  is  introduced  at  the  close  of  the 
volume  already  mentioned,  throughout  which 
he  has  performed  his  utmost  in  endeavouring 
to  show  ''  that  the  known  laws  of  variation, 
multiplication,  and  heredity,  resulting  in  a 
*  struggle  for  existence,'  and  the  '  survival  of 
the  fittest,'  have  probably  sufficed  to  produce 
all  the  varieties  of  structure,  all  the  wonderful 
adaptations,  all  the  beauty  of  form  and  of 
colour,  that  we  see  in  the  animal  and  vegetable 
kingdoms.  It  will,  therefore,  probably  excite 
some  surprise  among  my  readers  to  find  that  I 
do  not  consider  that  all  nature  can  be  ex- 
plained on  the  principles  of  which  I  am  so 
ardent  an  advocate  :  and  that  I  am  now  myself 


MR.  WALLACE'S  LIMITATIONS.  285 

going  to  State  objections,  and  to  place  limits, 
to    the    power   of    "Natural    Selection.''      I 
believe,   however,  that  there  are  such  limits  ; 
and   that  just  as  surely  as  we  can   trace  the 
action  of  natural  laws   in  the   development  of 
organic  forms,   and  can  clearly  conceive  that 
fuller  knowledge  would   enable   us   to   follow 
step  by  step  the  whole  process  of  true  develop- 
ment,  so   surely  can  we   trace    the    action    of 
some  unknown   higher  law,  beyond  and  inde- 
pendent of  all  those  laws  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge.     We  can  trace  this  action  more  or 
less    distinctly  in  many  phenomena,  the    two 
most    important  of  which    are — the    origin  of 
sensation  or  consciousness,  and  the  develop- 
ment of  man  from  the  lower  animals. 

"  In  considering  the  question  of  the  develop- 
ment of  man  by  known  natural  laws,  we  must 
ever  bear  in  mind  the  first  principle  of  Natural 
Selection,  no  less  than  of  the  general  theory  of 
Evolution,  that  all  changes  of  form  or  struc- 
ture, all  increase  in  the  size  of  an  organ  or 
in  its  complexity,  all  greater  specialization  or 
physiological  division  of  labour,  can  only  be 
■brought  about,  inasmuch  as  it  is  for  the  good 
of  the  being  so  modified.  Mr.  Darwin  himself 
has  taken  care  to  impress  upon  us  that  Natural 


286  MR.    WALLACE'S  LIMITATIONS. 

Selection  has  no  power  to  produce  absolute 
perfection,  but  only  relative  perfection  ;  no 
power  to  advance  any  being  much  beyond  his 
fellow-beings  ;  but  only  just  so  much  beyond  it 
as  to  enable  it  to  survive  them  in  the  struggle 
for  existence.  Still  less  has  it  any  power  to 
produce  any  modifications  which  are  in  any 
degree  injurious  to  its  possessor ;  and  Mr. 
Darwin  frequently  uses  the  strong  expression 
that  a  single  instance  of  this  kind  would  be 
fatal  to  his  theory.  If,  therefore,  we  find  in 
man  any  characters  which  all  the  evidence  we 
can  obtain  goes  to  show  would  have  been 
actually  injurious  to  him  on  their  first  appear- 
ance, they  could  not  possibly  have  been  pro- 
duced by  Natural  Selection.  Neither  could 
any  specially  developed  organ  have  been  so 
produced  if  it  had  been  merely  useless  to  him, 
or  if  its  use  was  not  proportionate  to  its  degree 
of  development.  Such  cases  as  these  would 
prove  that  some  other  law,  or  some  other  power 
than  Natural  Selection,  had  been  at  work.  But 
if  further  we  could  see  that  these  very  modifi- 
cations, though  hurtful  and  useless  at  the  time 
when  they  first  appeared,  became  in  the  highest 
degree  useful  at  a  much  later  period,  and  are 
now  essential  to  the  full  moral  and  intellectual 


THE  INVERSE  PROBLEM.  2S7 

development  of  human  nature,  we  should  then 
infer  the  action  of  mind,  foreseeing  the  future 
and  preparing  for  it,  just  as  surely  as  we  do 
when  we  see  the  breeder  set  himself  to  work 
with  the  determination  to  produce  a  definite 
improvement  in  some  cultivated  plant  and  do- 
mestic animal.  I  would  further  remark  that  this 
inquiry  is  as  thoroughly  scientific  and  legitimate 
as  that  into  the  origin  of  species  itself.  It  is 
an  attempt  to  solve  the  inverse  problem,  to 
deduce  the  existence  of  a  new  power  of  a 
definite  character,  in  order  to  account  for  facts 
which,  according  to  the  theory  of  Natural 
Selection,  ought  not  to  happen.  Such  pro- 
blems are  well  known  to  science,  and  the  search 
after  their  solution  has  often  led  to  the  most 
brilliant  results.  In  the  case  of  man,  there  are 
facts  of  the  nature  above  alluded  to,  and  in 
calling  attention  to  them,  and  inferring  a  cause 
for  them,  I  believe  that  I  am  as  strictly  within 
the  bounds  of  scientific  investigation  as  I  have 
been  in  any  other  portion  of  my  work." 

Mr.  Wallace  then  proceeds  to  adduce  these 
facts,  the  first  of  which  is  that  the  brain  of  the 
savage  can  be  shown  to  be  larger  than  he  needs 
it  to  be.  After  exhibiting  the  proofs  of  this 
fact,   and  comparing  the  intellect  of  savages 


THE  BRAIN  OF  SAVAGES. 


and  animals,  and  considering  them  in  propor- 
tion to  their  respective  wants,  he  shows  that 
whether  we  compare  the  savage  with  the  higher 
developments  of  man,  or  with  the  brutes  around 
him,  we  are  alike  driven  to  the  conclusion  that 
in  his  large  and  well-developed  brain  he  pos- 
sesses an  organ  quite  disproportionate  to  his 
actual  requirements — an  organ  that  seems  pre- 
pared in  advance,  only  to  be  fully  utilized  as 
he  progresses  in  civilization.  "  A  brain  slightly 
larger  than  that  of  the  gorilla  would,  according 
to  the  evidence  before  us,  fully  prove  sufficient 
for  the  limited  mental  development  of  the 
savage  ;  and  we  must  therefore  admit  that  the 
large  brain  he  possesses  could  never  have  been 
developed  by  any  of  those  laws  of  Evolution, 
whose  essence  is  that  they  lead  to  a  degree  of 
organization  exactly  proportionate  to  the  wants 
of  each  species,  never  beyond  their  wants — 
that  no  preparation  can  be  made  for  the  future 
development  of  the  race — that  one  part  of  the 
body  can  never  increase  in  size  or  complexity, 
except  in  strict  co-ordination  to  the  pressing 
wants  of  the  whole.  The  brain  of  prehistoric 
and  savage  man  seems  to  me  to  prove  the 
existence  of  some  power  distinct  from  that 
which  has  guided  the  development  of  the  lo;tver 


HAIRY  COVERING   OF  MAMMALIA,        289 


animals  through  their  ever-varying  forms   of 
being." 

The  Use  of  the  hairy  covering  of  MammaHa 
is  the  next  difficulty  specified.  One  of  the  most 
o-eneral  external  characters  of  the  terrestrial 
mammalia  is  the  hairy  covering  of  the  body, 
which,  whenever  the  skin  is  flexible,  soft,  and 
sensitive,  forms  a  natural  protection  against  the 
severities  of  climate,  and  particularly  against 
rain.  Mr.  Wallace  adduces  one  or  two  striking 
evidences  of  design  and  contrivance  in  the 
adaptation  of  the  their  hairy  coverings  to  the 
necessities  of  the  animals  provided  with  them. 
The  hair,  for  instance,  lies  downwards  on  the 
limbs  of  all  walking  mammals,  from  the  shoulder 
to  the  toes,  but  in  the  orang-utan  it  is  directed 
from  the  shoulder  to  the  elbow,  and  again  from 
the  wrist  to  the  elbow,  in  a  reverse  direction. 
This  correspondence  to  the  habits  of  the  animal, 
which,  when  resting,  holds  its  long  arms  up- 
wards over  its  head,  or  clasps  a  branch  above 
it,  so  that  the  rain  would  flow  down  both  the  arm 
and  fore-arm  to  the  long  hair  which  meets  at 
the  elbow.  "  In  accordance  with  this  principle, 
the  hair  is  always  longer  or  more  dense  along 
the  spine  or  middle  of  the  back  from  the  nape 
to  the  tail,  often  rising  into  a  crest  of  hairs  or 

19 


290        HAIRY  COVERING  OF  MAMMALIA, 

bristles  on  the  ridge  of  the  back.  This  cha- 
racter prevails  through  the  entire  series  of  the 
mammalia,  from  the  marsupials  to  the  quadru- 
mana ;  and  by  this  long  persistence  it  must 
have  acquired  such  a  powerful  hereditary  ten- 
dency, that  we  should  expect  it  to  reappear 
continually,  even  after  it  had  been  abolished 
by  ages  of  the  most  rigid  selection  ;  and  we 
may  feel  sure  that  it  never  could  have  been 
completely  abolished  under  the  law  of  Natural 
Selection,  unless  it  had  become  so  positively 
injurious  as  to  lead  to  the  almost  invariable 
extinction  of  the  individuals  possessing  it." 

Yet  in  man,  hypothetically  descended  by 
Natural  Selection  from  apes,  the  hairy  covering 
of  the  body  has  almost  totally  disappeared, 
and  what  is  very  remarkable,  it  has  disappeared 
more  completely  from  the  back  than  from  any 
other  part  of  the  body.  Bearded  and  beardless 
races  alike  have  the  back  smooth,  and  even 
when  a  considerable  quantity  of  hair  appears 
on  the  limbs  and  breast,  the  back,  and  espe- 
cially the  spinal  region,  is  absolutely  free,  thus 
completely  reversing  the  characteristics  of  all 
other  mammalia. 

Furthermore,  savage  man  actually  feels  the 
want  of  this  hairy  covering.     One  of  the  com- 


ITS  DISAPPEARANCE  IN  MAN.  291 

monest  habits  of  savages  is  to  use  some 
covering  for  the  back  and  shoulders,  even 
when  they  have  none  for  any  other  part  of  the 
body.  The  Tasmanian  savages,  the  Maories, 
the  Patagonians,  and  the  Fuegians,  the  Hotten- 
tots, the  natives  of  Timor,  have  all  used,  or 
do  use,  cloths,  cloaks,  or  mantles,  small  pieces 
of  skin,  and  leaves  of  the  fan  palm,  as  more  or 
less  ample  back  coverings,  while  almost  all  the 
Malay  races,  as  well  as  the  Indians  of  South 
America  make  great  palm-leaf  hats,  four  feet 
or  more  across,  which  they  use  during  their 
canoe  voyages  to  protect  their  bodies  from 
showers  of  heavy  rain.  Savages  then,  far  and 
wide,  so  urgently  need  the  use  of  a  hairy  cover- 
ing, that  they  employ  various  substitutes  for 
that  which  Natural  Selection  ought  to  have 
left  them,  by  rule  and  right  of  heredity. 

Mr.  Darwin  has  said  in  reply — '*  No  one 
supposes  that  the  nakedness  of  the  skin  is  any 
direct  advantage  to  man,  so  that  his  body  can- 
not have  been  divested  of  hair  through  Natural 
Selection.  Nor  have  we  any  grounds  for 
believing,  as  shown  in  a  former  chapter,  that 
this  can  be  due  to  the  direct  action  of  the  con- 
ditions to  which  man  has  long  been  exposed,  or 
that  it  is  the  result  of  correlative  development. 


292  MR.  DARWIN'S  REPLY. 


The  absence  of  hair  on  the  body  is,  to  a  certain 
extent,  a  secondary  sexual  character;  for  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  women  are  less  hairy  than 
men.  Therefore  we  may  reasonably  suspect 
that  this  is  a  character  which  has  been  gained 
through  Sexual  Selection.  As  woman  has  a 
less  hairy  body  than  man,  and  as  this  character 
is  common  to  all  races,  we  may  suppose  that 
our  female  semi-human  progenitors  were  pro- 
bably first  partially  divested  of  hair,  and  that  this 
occurred  at  an  extremely  remote  period  before 
the  several  races  had  diverged  from  a  common 
stock.  As  our  female  progenitors  gradually 
acquired  this  new  character  of  nudity,  they 
must  have  transmitted  it  in  an  almost  equal 
degree  to  their  young  offspring  of  both  sexes ; 
so  that  its  transmission,  as  in  the  case  of  many 
ornaments  with  mammals  and  birds,  has  not 
been  limited  either  by  age  or  sex."  Those 
who  desire  more  of  this  argument  may  refer  to 
Mr.  Darwin's  Descent  of  Man  (vol.  ii.,  p.  377, 
etc.)  It  is  clear  that  the  concession  is  made 
respecting  the  inapplicability  of  Natural  Se- 
lection, but  when  Mr.  Wallace  wrote,  he  knew 
not  the  wonderful  power  and  possibilities  which 
were  about  to  be  attributed  by  his  friend  to 
Sexual  Selection.     It  should  be  observed  that 


MR.  DARWIN  AND  MR.    WALLACE.        293 

much  of  what  makes  against  the  one  equally  in- 
validates the  other  agency.  Mr.  Darwin's  argu- 
ment on  this  subject  appears  to  amount  to  this 
— what  Natural  Selection  could  not  do,  and  no 
one  supposes  that  it  did,  Sexual  Selection 
probably  did  ;  and  there  are  various  reasons  for 
supposing  that  it  did.  But  Mr.  Wallace,  the 
co-discoverer  of  Natural  Selection,  had  really 
supposed  that  Mr.  Darwin  and  his  friends  had 
all  conceived  our  hairlessness  to  be  due  to 
Natural  Selection. 

"  It  seems  to  me  then,"  says  Mr.  Wallace, 
"to  be  absolutely  certain,  that  *  Natural  Se- 
lection' could  not  have  produced  man's  hair- 
less body  by  the  accumulation  of  variations 
from  a  hairy  ancestor.  The  evidence  all  goes 
to  show  that  such  variations  could  not  have 
been  useful,  but  on  the  contrary,  must  have 
been  to  some  extent  hurtful.  Two  characters 
could  hardly  be  wider  apart,  than  the  size  and 
development  of  man's  brain,  and  the  distribu- 
tion of  hair  upon  his  body ;  yet  they  both  lead 
us  to  the  same  conclusion — that  some  other 
power  than  Natural  Selection  has  been  en- 
gaged in  his  production." 

Other  physical  characteristics  of  man  might 
be  instanced  for  the  same  argument,  particularly 


294  THE  HUMAN  VOICE. 


the  Feet  and  the  Hands  of  man.  Throughout 
the  whole  of  the  Ouadrumana,  the  foot  is  pre- 
hensile ;  and  a  very  rigid  selection  must  have 
been  requisite  to  bring  about  that  arrangement 
of  the  bones  and  muscles  which  has  converted 
the  thumb  into  a  great  toe  ;  so  com.pletely  has 
the  power  of  "  opposability  "  been  totally  lost 
in  every  race,  whatever  some  teachers  may  say 
to  the  contrary.  Nor  is  there  any  apparent 
reason  why  the  prehensile  power  should  have 
been  taken  away. 

As  to  the  powers  of  the  human  voice,  they 
are  only  briefly  adverted  to  by  Mr.  Wallace  as 
another  exception  to  the  power  of  Natural 
Selection,  bnt  a  very  strong  argument  against 
the  operation  of  that  power  or  metaphor, -might 
be  founded  upon  this  peculiarly  human  pos- 
session—and well  founded  in  relation  to  Mr. 
Darwin's  recently  expressed  views,  which 
Mr.  Wallace  at  the  time  he  wrote  had  not 
before  him. 

The  problem  is  simply  this:  In  man,  espe- 
cially in  the  female  sex,  we  have  the  larynx 
capable  of  producing  not  only  articulate  speech 
(which  might  be  considered  apart),  but  over 
and  far  above  that,  musical  sounds  of  a  wonder- 
ful and  enchanting  character.     The  flexibility, 


HUMAN  MUSICAL    VOICE,  295 

the  compass,  the  magical  achievements  of  the 
human  voice  are  notorious  and  unfailing.  Its 
highest  achievements  are  exceptional,  but  they 
belong  to  the  human  race,  and  must  be  ac- 
counted for  by  any  physical  hypothesis  which 
accounts  for  man.  Mr.  Wallace  regards  them 
as  out  of  the  power  of  Natural  Selection  to 
produce.  *'The  habits  of  savages,"  he  says, 
"  give  no  indication  of  how  this  faculty  could 
have  been  developed  by  Natural  Selection, 
because  it  is  never  required  or  used  by  them. 
The  singing  of  savages  is  a  more  or  less 
monotonous  howling,  and  the  females  seldom 
sing  at  all.  Savages  certainly  never  choose 
wives  for  their  fine  voices,  but  for  rude  health 
and  strength  and  physical  beauty.  Sexual 
Selection  therefore  could  not  have  developed 
this  wonderful  power,  which  only  comes  into 
play  among  civilized  people.  It  seems  as  if 
the  organ  had  been  prepared  in  anticipation  of 
the  future  progress  of  man,  since  it  contains 
latent  capacities  which  are  useless  to  him  in 
his  earlier  condition.  The  delicate  correlations 
of  structure  that  give  it  such  marvellous  power 
could  not  therefore  have  been  acquired  by 
means  of  Natural  Selection." 

Let  us  now  hear  Vlx.  Darwin  :  **The  capacity 


296      DARWIN  ON  MUSICAL  DERIVATION 


and  love  for  singing  and  music,  though  not  a 
sexual  character  in  man,  must  not  here  be 
passed  over.  Although  the  sounds  emitted  by 
animals  of  all  kinds  serve  many  purposes,  a 
strong  case  can  be  made  out,  that  the  vocal 
organs  were  primarily  used  and  perfected  in 
relation  to  the  propagation  of  the  species. 
Insects  and  some  few  species  are  the  lowest 
animals  which  voluntarily  produce  any  sound, 
and  this  is  generally  effected  by  the  aid  of 
beautifully  constructed  stridulating  organs, 
which  are  often  confined  to  the  males  alone. 
The  sounds  thus  produced  consist,  I  believe,  in 
all  cases,  of  the  same  note,  repeated  rhythmi- 
cally, and  this  is  pleasing  even  to  the  ears  of 
man.  Their  chief,  and  in  some  cases  exclusive 
use  appears  to  be  either  to  call  or  to  charm  the 
opposite  sex. 

*'  The  sounds  produced  by  fishes  are  said  in 
some  cases  to  be  made  by  the  males  during  the 
breeding  season.  All  the  air-breathing  Verte- 
brata  necessarily  possess  an  apparatus  for  in- 
haling and  expelling  air,  with  a  pipe  capable 
of  being  closed  at  one  end.  Hence  when  the 
primeval  members  of  this  class  were  strongly 
excited,  and  their  muscles  violently  contracted, 
purposeless    sounds    would    almost    certainly 


DARWIN  ON  MUSICAL    DERIVATION.       297 


have  been  produced,  and  then,  if  they  proved 
in  any  vv^ay  serviceable,  might  reachly  have 
been  modified  or  intensified  by  the  preserva- 
tion of  properly  adapted  variations.  In  the 
class  of  Mammals,  with  which  we  are  here 
more  particularly  concerned,  the  males  of  al- 
most all  the  species  use  their  voices  during  the 
breeding  season,  much  more  than  at  any  other 
time  ;  and  some  are  absolutely  mute  excepting 
at  this  season.  Both  sexes  of  other  species,  or 
the  female  alone,  use  their  voice  as  a  love-call. 
Considering  these  facts,  and  that  the  vocal 
organs  of  some  quadrupeds  are  much  more 
largely  developed  in  the  male  than  in  the 
female,  either  permanently  or  temporarily 
during  the  breeding  season ;  and  considering 
that  in  most  of  the  lower  classes  the  sounds 
produced  by  the  males  serve  not  only  to  call 
but  to  allure  the  female,  it  is  a  surprising  fact 
that  we  have  not  as  yet  any  good  evidence  that 
these  organs  are  used  by  male  mammals  to 
charm  the  females. 

"  The  perception,  if  not  the  enjoyment  of 
musical  cadences  and  of  rhythm  is  probably 
common  to  all  animals,  and  no  doubt  depends 
on  the  common  physiological  nature  of  their 
nervous  systems.     With  man  song  is  admitted 


298      DARWIN  ON   MUSICAL  DERIVATION. 

to  be  the  basis  or  origin  of  instrumental  music. 
As  neither  the  enjoyment  nor  the  capacity  of 
producing  musical  notes  are  faculties  of  the 
least  direct  use  to  man  in  reference  to  his  ordi- 
nary habits  in  life,  they  must  be  ranked 
amongst  the  most  mysterious  with  which  he  is 
endowed.  They  are  present,  though  in  a  very 
rude  and  as  it  appears  almost  latent  condition, 
in  men  of  all  races,  even  the  most  savage ;  but 
so  different  is  the  taste  of  the  different  races, 
that  our  music  gives  not  the  least  pleasure  to 
savages,  and  their  music  is  to  us  hideous  and 
unmeaning.  .  .  .  Whether  or  not  the  half  human 
progenitors  of  man  possessed,  like  the  before 
mentioned  gibbon,  the  capacity  of  producing, 
and  no  doubt  of  appreciating,  musical  notes, 
we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  man  pos- 
sessed these  faculties  at  a  very  remote  period, 
for  singing  and  music  are  very  ancient  arts."* 
In  all  the  preceding  observations,  and  in 
those  which  follow  them  in  Mr.  Darwin's  pages, 
there  does  not  appear  any  direct  or  even  pro- 
bable evidence  that  vocal,  or  the  taste  for  in- 
strumental music,  has  the  slightest  connection 
with  Natural  Selection,  or  any  continuous  con- 
nection with   Sexual    Selection.      What  is  ad- 

*   "  D.  -ccnl  of  Man,"  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  330 — 334. 


BROAD   DISTINCTIONS.  io,c^ 

vanced  may  be  and  apparently  is  true  as  to  the 
animals  referred  to,  but  there  is  no  kind  of  re- 
lation between  their  noises  and  our  music  ;  nor 
can  the  stridulation  of  beetles  or  other  insects, 
or  of  crustaceans,  or  the  cries  of  mammals,  or 
even  the  rude  shouts  or  songs  of  savages  be 
compared  with  any  seriousness  to  the  singing 
of  man.  To  attempt  to  establish  a  develop- 
mental connection  between  them  seems  to  be 
simply  ludicrous.  The  flexibility  and  extensive 
capacity  of  the  human  larynx  are  exclusively 
and  peculiarly  human.  They  are  by  no  means 
mysterious  when  regarded  as  a  particular  en- 
dowment imparted  directly  by  the  Creator,  but 
regarded  in  the  light  of  development  or  selection 
from  entomological  sounds,  they  are  mysterious 
beyond  many  mysteries,  and  could  only  be  re- 
ceived as  developmental,  or  sexually  or  naturally 
selected,  upon  the  saintly  principle  of  "  Credo 
quia  impossibile  est.^^  Ridicule  might  be  poured 
abundantly  and  easily  on  any  such  proposition.. 
But  if  the  hypothesis  breaks  down  upon  so 
important  a  matter,  and  on  one  so  readily  ap- 
prehensible by  all  mankind,  and  if  it  likewise 
fails  in  respect  of  the  other  matters  above 
named,  and  upon  several  which  might  be  fur- 
ther instanced,  what  is  its  remaining  validity  ? 


300  MUSICAL    THEORISTS    AT   ISSUE. 

On  this  subject  of  music  Mr.  Wallace  is  at 
issue  with  Mr.  Darwin,  and  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  comes  to  an  exactly  opposite  conclu- 
sion. The  last-named  theorist  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  cadences  used  in  emotional 
speech  afford  the  foundation  from  which  music 
has  been  developed ;  whilst  Mr.  Darwin  con- 
cludes that  musical  notes  and  rhythm  were 
first  acquired  by  the  male  or  female  progeni- 
tors of  mankind  for  the  sake  of  charming-  the 
opposite  sex.  What  then  was  the  music  of  the 
transitional  being  depicted  by  Mr.  Darwin  in 
the  passage  previously  quoted  (p.  281)  ?  It 
mustbysupposition  have  been  a  confused  sound, 
if  anything  musical  or  rhythmical  sounded 
from  such  a  bisexual  compound.  But  if  this 
bisexual  compound  emitted  no  kind  of  musical 
sound,  what  becomes  of  the  development  of  pre- 
cedinof  entomological  and  crustacean  stridula- 
tions  ? 

Not  only  does  Mr.  Darwin  adhere  to  such  a 
theory,  but  he  actually  asserts  that  "  the  im- 
passioned orator,  bard,  or  musician,  while 
with  his  varied  tones  and  cadences  he  excites 
the  strongest  emotions  in  his  hearers,  little 
suspects  that  he  uses  the  same  means  by  which 
at  an  extremely  remote  period,  his  half  human 


MENTAL   EVOLUTION.  301 

ancestors  aroused  each  others'  ardent  passions, 
during  their  mutual  courtship  and  rivalry."  So 
that  oratory,  poetry,  music,  are  nothing-  more 
than  the  issue  of  the  crude  dissonances  of  an 
hypothetical  and  incredible  semi-humanity ! 


MENTAL   AND  MORAL  EVOLUTION. 


I 


XIII. 

MENTAL  AND  MORAL  EVOLUTION. 

T  win  be  advisable  to  cite  Mr.  Darwin's 
words  on  this  subject: 

*'  The  greatest  difficulty  which  presents  itself 
when  we  are  driven  to  the  above  conclusion 
on  the  origin  of  man"  (in  a  remote  aquatic 
animal),  *'  is  the  high  standard  of  intellectual 
power  and  of  moral  disposition  which  he  has 
attained.  But  every  one  who  admits  the 
general  principle  of  Evolution,  must  see  that 
the  mental  powers  of  the  higher  animals,  which 
are  the  same  in  kind  with  those  of  mankind, 
though  so  different  in  degree,  are  capable  of 
advancement.  Thus  the  interval  between  the 
mental  forces  of  one  of  the  higher  apes  and  of  a 
fish,  or  between  those  of  an  ant  and  scale-insect, 
is  immense.  The  development  of  these  powers  in 
animals  does  not  offer  any  special  difficulty,  for 
with  our  domesticated  animals,  the  mental  facul- 


MENTAL  AND  MORAL  EVOI^UTION.         303 

ties  are  certainly  variable,  and  the  variations  are 
inherited.  No  one  doubts  that  these  faculties  are 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  animals  in  a  state 
of  Nature.  Therefore  the  considerations  are  fa- 
vourable for  their  development  through  Natural 
Selection.  The  same  conclusions  may  be 
extended  to  man  ;  the  intellect  must  have  been 
all-important  to  him,  even  at  a  very  remote 
period,  enabling  him  to  use  language,  to  invent 
and  make  weapons,  tools,  traps,  etc.  ;  by  which 
means,  in  combination  with  his  social  habits, 
he  long  ago  became  the  most  dominant  of  all 
livinor  creatures. 

****** 

"The  higher  intellectual  powers  of  man,  such 
as  those  of  ratiocination,  abstraction,  self- 
consciousness,  etc.,  will  have  followed  from 
the  continued  improvement  of  other  mental 
faculties :  but  without  considerable  culture  of  the 
mind,  both  in  the  race  and  in  the  individual, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  these  higher  powers 
would  be  exercised,  and  thus  fully  attained." 

"  The  development  of  the  moral  qualities  is 
a  more  difficult  and  interesting  problem.  Their 
foundations  lie  in  the  social  instincts,  including 
in  this  term  the  family  tie.  These  instincts  are 
of  a  highly  complex  nature,  and  in  the  case  of 


304  DARWIN    ON   MORAL    EVOLUTION. 

the  lower  animals,  have  special  tendencies 
towards  certain  definite  actions ;  but  the  more 
important  elements  for  us  are  love,  and  the 
distinct  emotion  of  sympathy.  Animals  en- 
dowed with  the  social  instincts  take  pleasure  in 
each  other's  company,  warn  each  other  of 
danger,  defend  and  aid  each  other  in  many 
ways.  These  instincts  are  not  extended  to  all 
the  individuals  of  the  species,  but  only  to  those 
of  the  same  community.  As  they  are  highly 
beneficial  to  the  species,  they  have  in  all  proba- 
bility been  acquired  through  Natural  Selection. 

*'  A  moral  being  is  one  who  is  capable  of 
comparing  his  past,  future  actions  and  motives, 
— of  approving  of  some  and  disapproving  of 
others ;  and  the  fact  that  man  is  the  one  being 
who  with  certainty  can  be  thus  designated, 
makes  the  greatest  of  all  distinction  between 
him  and  the  lower  animals."  * 

Concerning  this  statement,  which  is  quite 
sufficient,  and  explicit  enough  to  represent  the 
hypothesis,  although  much  more  might  be 
quoted,  let  us  briefly  reason  : — 

It  is  plain  that  Mr.  Darwin  assigns  both  the 
intellectual  and  moral  qualities  of  man  to  the 
power  and  process  of  Natural  Selection,  and  he 

*  "  Descent  of  Man,"  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  390 — 2. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  MORALS.  305 

could  not  do  otherwise  consistently  with  his 
hypothesis.  This  appears  to  be  a  fundamental 
error ;  for  intelligence  as  to  the  intellect,  and  the 
moral  sense  as  to  morality,  are  both  incapable 
of  being  resolved  into  anything  lower  or 
simpler  than  themselves.  They  are  distinct, 
original,  and  not  derivative  endowments,  and 
no  multiplication  of  similitudes  in  the  faculties  of 
lower  animals  can  abolish  their  originality  and 
distinctness.  The  error  arises  from  confound- 
ing resemblances  with  identity — and  to  an 
analytic  and  unbiassed  reader  of  Mr.  Darwin's 
instances  and  illustrations,  it  must  appear  that 
the  resemblances  are  as  far  from  identity  as 
they  can  possibly  be.  Moreover,  resemblances 
both  mental  and  physiological  pervade  the 
organic  world,  because  the  Creator  has  acted 
upon  a  connected  plan,  call  it  type  or  evolution, 
or  what  we  please.  He  has  wrought  and  is  still 
working  upon  a  supremely-wise  and  long  pre- 
considered  plan,  which  displays  to  us  the  unity 
that  characterizes  Himself.  He  is  one,  and 
His  plan  is  one.  In  its  unity  His  plan  is  the 
reflection  of  the  Divine  unity. 

Unity  of  plan,  however,  admits  of  multi- 
form distinctions  in  execution,  and  just  as  a 
human  architect  or  machinist  works  to  his  pre- 

20 


3o6        WALLACE   ON  MENTAL  FACULTIES, 


conceived  idea,  with  various  differences  of 
detail  and  with  various  evidences  of  interven- 
tion, so  did  the  Creator,  here  introducing  one 
kind  of  life,  there  another.  Again  he  is  dis- 
covered adding  one  distinctive  element  and  then 
another.  Such  is  the  result  not  of  Natural  but 
of  Divine  Selection. 

A  like  current  of  thought  seems  to  have 
passed  through  the  mind  of  Mr.  Wallace,  who, 
I  may  venture  to  say,  appears  to  me  a  more  phi- 
losophical and  unprejudiced  expositor  of  Natu- 
ral Selection  than  even  ]\Ir.  Darwin.  Though 
Mr.  Wallace  cherishes  a  paternal  affection  for 
his  own  principle,  his  affection  is  not  as  blind  as 
parental  affection  commonly  is.  He  sees  the 
shortcomings  and  failures  of  his  own  offspring, 
and  will  not  through  excess  of  the  amiable  weak- 
ness of  natural  paternity  shut  his  eyes  to  what  is 
wrong,  or  devote  his  advocacy  to  what  is  mani- 
festly unreasonable.  Hence  we  are  disposed  to 
listen  to  him  when  he  confesses  the  inadequacy 
of  his  beloved  progeny.  Natural  Selection. 

*'  Turning  to  the  mind  of  man,"  says  Mr. 
Wallace,  *'we  meet  with  many  difficulties 
in  attempting  to  understand  how  those  mental 
faculties,  which  are  especially  human,  could 
have  beer  acquired  by  the  preservation  of  use- 


NATURAL  SELECTION  INADEQUATE.       307 

ful  variation.   At  first  sight,  it  would  seem  that 
such   feelings  as  those  of  abstract  justice  and 
benevolence  could  never  have  been  so  acquired, 
because  they  are   incompatible  with  the  law  of 
the  strongest,  which  is  the  essence  of  Natural 
Selection.    But  there  is  another  class  of  human 
faculties  that  do   not  regard   our  fellow  man, 
and  which  cannot  therefore  be  thus  accounted 
for.     Such  are  the  capacity  to  form  ideal  con- 
ceptions  of  space  and  time,    of  eternity   and 
infinity — the     capacity     for     intense     artistic 
feelings  of  pleasure,  in  form,  colour,  or  compo- 
sition— and  for  those  abstract  notions  of  form 
and    number,     which     render    geometry    and 
arithmetic  possible — how    were    all  or  any   of 
these  faculties  first  developed,  when  they  could 
have  been  of  no   possible   use  to  man   in  his 
early  stage  of  barbarism  ?     How  could  Natural 
Selection,  or  Survival    of  the    Fittest    in    the 
struggle   for  existence,   at   all  favour  the   de- 
velopment of  mental  powers  entirely  removed 
from  the  material  necessities  of  savage  men, 
and  which  even  now,  with  our  comparatively 
high  civilization,  are,  in  their  farthest  develop- 
ment, in    advance   of  the   age,  and   appear  to 
have  relation   rather  to  the  future  of  the  race 
than  to  its  actual  status  ?  '' 


Then  in  respect  of  the  origin  of  the  moral 
sense,  ]\Ir.  Wallace  continues:  "Exactly  the 
same  difficulty  arises,  when  we  endeavour  to 
account  for  the  development  of  the  moral  sense 
or  conscience  in  savage  man,  for  although  the 
practice  of  benevolence,  honesty,  or  truth  may 
have  been  useful  to  the  tribe  possessing  these 
virtues,  that  does  not  at  all  account  for  the 
peculiar  sanctity  attached  to  actions  which  each 
tribe  considers  right  and  moral,  as  contrasted 
with  the  very  different  feelings  with  which  they 
regard  what  is  useful.  The  Utilitarian  hypothe- 
sis (which  is  the  theory  of  Natural  Selection 
applied  to  the  mind),  seems  inadequate  to 
account  for  the  development  of  the  moraJ  sense. 
This  subject  has  been  recently  very  much 
discussed,  and  I  will  here  only  give  one 
example  to  illustrate  my  argument.  The  utili- 
tarian sanction  for  truthfulnesss  is  by  no  means 
very  powerful  or  universal.  Few  cases  enforce 
it.  No  very  sure  reprobation  follows  untruth- 
fulness. In  all  ages  and  countries  falsehood 
has  been  thought  allowable  in  love,  and  laud- 
able in  war ;  while  at  the  present  day,  it  is 
held  to  be  venial  by  the  majority  of  mankind, 
in  trade,  commerce,  and  speculation.  A  cer- 
tain amount  of  truthfulness  is  a  necessary  part 


UTILITARIANISM  INADEQUATE,  309 


of  politeness  in  the  east  and  west  alike,  while 
even  some  moralists  have  held  a  lie  justifiable, 
to  elude  an  enemy  or  prevent  a  crime.  Such 
being:  the  difficulties  with  which  this  virtue  has 
had  to  struggle,  with  so  many  exceptions  to 
its  practice,  with  so  many  instances  in  which  it 
brought  ruin  or  death  to  its  too  ardent  devotee, 
how  can  we  believe  that  considerations  of 
utility,  could  ever  invest  it  with  the  mysterious 
sanctity  of  the  highest  virtue, — could  ever 
induce  men  to  value  truth  for  its  own  sake, 
and  practise  it  regardless  of  consequences?" 


« 


**  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  that  such  intense 
and  mystical  feeling  of  right  and  wrong  (so 
intense  as  to  overcome  all  ideas  of  personal 
advantage  or  utility),  could  have  been  de- 
veloped out  of  accumulated  ancestral  experi- 
ence of  utility  ;  and  still  more  difficult  to  under- 
stand how  feelings  developed  by  one  set  of 
utilities  could  be  transferred  to  acts  of  which 
the  utility  was  partial,  imaginary,  or  altogether 
absent.  But  if  a  moral  sense  is  an  essential 
part  of  our  nature,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  its 
sanction  may  be  given  to  acts  which  are  useless 
or  immoral;  just  as  the  natural  appetite  for 


TRUTHFULNESS  IN  SAVAGES. 


drink   is  perverted  by   the  drunkard   into  the 
means  of  his  destruction.  '*  * 

We  cannot  dwell  too  emphatically  on  man's 
moral  sense  as  one  of  his  most  distinctive 
peculiarities.  It  is  not  a  mere  product  of  culti- 
vation developed  by  utilitarian  considerations, 
but  an  innate  or  inherent  principle,  animating* 
even  savages.  The  Kurubars  and  Santals,  bar- 
barous hill  tribes  of  Central  India,  are  noted 
for  veracity,  for  it  is  a  common  saying  that  "  a 
Kurubar  always  speaks  the  truth,"  and  Major 
Jervis  says,  *'  the  Santals  are  the  most  truthful 
men  I  ever  met  v^ith."  As  a  remarkable 
instance  of  this  quality,  the  following  fact  is 
given  :  "A  number  of  prisoners  taken  during 
the  Santal  insurrection,  were  allowed  to  eo 
free  on  parole,  to  work  at  a  certain  spot  for 
wages.  After  some  time  cholera  attacked 
them,  and  they  were  obliged  to  leave,  but 
every  man  of  them  returned  and  gave  up  his 
earnings  to  the  guard.  Two  hundred  savages 
with  money  in  their  girdles,  walked  thirty  miles 
to  prison,  rather  than  break  their  word  !  " 
*'My  own  experience  among  savages,"  adds  Mr. 
Wallace,  *'has  furnished  me  with  similar,  though 
less  severely  tested,  instances  ;  and  we  cannot 

*  "Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection,"  p.  355. 


WALLA CE  AND  DARWIN  ON  CONSCIENCE.  31 1 

avoid  asking,  how  is  it  that  in  these  few  cases 
**  experience  of  utility"  have  left  such  an  over- 
whelming impression,  while  in  so  many  others 
they  have  left  none  ?  The  experience  of 
savage  men  as  regards  the  utility  of  truth, 
must  in  the  long  run  be  pretty  nearly  equal. 
How  is  it  then,  that  in  some  cases  the  result  is 
a  sanctity  which  overrides  all  considerations  of 
personal  advantage,  while  in  others  there  is 
hardly  a  rudiment  of  such  a  feeling?  The 
intuitional  theory,  which  I  am  now  advocating, 
explains  the  supposition  that  there  is  a  feeling, 
— a  sense  of  right  and  wrong — in  our  nature 
antecedent  to  and  independent  of  experiences 
of  utility." 

In  this  view  Mr.  Wallace  will  commend  him- 
self to  most  men,  and  it  seems  unaccountable 
that  his  friend  and  fellow  naturalist,  Mr. 
Darwin,  after  having  read  Mr.  Wallace's 
statement,  which  however  is  only  a  repetition 
and  enforcement  of  general  opinion,  should 
advocate  one  that  opposes  it.  *'  I  fully  sub- 
scribe," says  Mr.  Darwin,  '*  to  the  judgment 
of  those  writers  who  maintain  that  of  all  the 
differences  between  man  and  the  lower  animals, 
the  moral  sense  or  conscience  is  by  far  the 
most  important."    This  sense,  as  Sir  J.  Mackin- 


;i2  DARWIN  AND  KANT  ON  DUTY. 


tosh  remarks,  *'  has  a  rightful  supremacy  over 
every  other  principle  of  human  action;"  it  is 
summed  up  in  that  short  but  imperious  word 
ought,  so  full  of  high  significance.  It  is  the 
most  noble  of  all  the  attributes  of  man,  leading 
him  without  a  moment's  hesitation  to  risk  his 
life  for  that  of  a  fellow  creature ;  or  after  due 
deliberation,  impelled  simply  by  the  deep 
feeling  of  right  or  duty,  to  sacrifice  it  in  some 
great  cause.  Immanuel  Kant  exclaims,  "Duty! 
wondrous  thought  that  worketh  neither  by  foul 
insinuation,  flattery,  nor  by  any  threat,  but 
merely  by  holding  up  thy  naked  law  in  the 
soul,  and  so  extorting  for  thyself  always 
reverence,  if  not  always  obedience ;  before 
whom  all  appetites  are  dumb,  however  secretly 
they  rebel ;  whence  thy  original  ?" 

This  great  question  which  has  been  discussed 
by  many  writers  of  consummate  ability,  and  my 
sole  excuse  for  touching  on  it  is  the  impossibility 
of  here  passing  it  over,  and  because  so  far  as  I 
know,  no  one  has  approached  it  exclusively  from 
the  side  of  natural  histor}^  The  investigation 
also  possesses  some  independent  interest,  as 
an  attempt  to  see  how  far  the  study  of  the 
lower  animals  can  throw  light  on  one  of  the 
highest  psychical  faculties  of  man. 


DERIVATIVE   CONSCIENCE.  313 

The  following-  proposition  seems  to  me  in  a 
high  degree  probable,  namely,  that  any  animal 
whatever,  endowed  with  Avell- marked  social 
instincts,  would  inevitably  acquire  a  moral 
sense  or  conscience  as  soon  as  its  intellectual 
powers  have  become  as  well  developed,  or 
nearly  as  well  developed,  as  in  man. 

Mr.  Darwin  proceeds  to  contend  for  this  from 
several  considerations  :  as  these — (i)  The  social 
instincts  lead  an  animal  to  take  pleasure  in  the 
society  of  its  fellows.  (2)  As  soon  as  the 
mental  faculties  had  become  highly  developed, 
images  of  all  past  actions  and  motives  would 
be  incessantly  passing  through  the  brain  of 
each  individual,  and  that  feeling  of  dissatisfac- 
tion which  invariably  results  from  any  unsatis- 
fied instinct,  would  arise  as  often  as  it  was 
perceived  that  the  enduring  and  always  present 
social  instinct  had  yielded  to  some  other  instinct 
at  the  time  strange,  but  neither  enduring  in 
its  nature,  nor  leaving  behind  it  a  very  vivid 
impression.  (3)  After  the  power  of  language 
had  been  acquired,  and  the  wishes  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  same  community  could  be  distinctly 
expressed,  the  common  opinion  how  each 
member  ought  to  act  for  the  public  good 
would    naturally    become    to   a    large   extent 


314  ACCUMULATED  EXPERIENCES. 

the  guide  to  action.  (4)  Habit  in  the  indi- 
vidual would  ultimately  play  a  very  important 
part  in  guiding  the  conduct  of  each  member ; 
for  the  social  instincts  and  impulses,  like  all 
other  instincts  and  impulses,  would  be  greatly 
strengthened  by  habit,  as  would  obedience  to 
the  wishes  and  judgment  of  the  community.* 

These  propositions  are  discussed,  some  of 
them  at  considerable  length,  by  Air.  Darwin  in 
the  chapter  devoted  to  this  subject.  The  whole 
discussion  appears  to  take  rather  an  apologetic 
than  an  elucidatory  tone,  and  attempts  to  show 
how  such  things  7iiay  be  rather  than  why  they 
are  as  we  find  them.  Approached  exclusively 
from  the  natural  history  side,  the  moral  sense  is 
viewed  simply  as  a  natural  instinct,  and  by  no 
means  as  moral  and  religious  writers  view  it. 
Other  purely  naturalistic  writers  regard  this 
principle  in  the  same  light.  Thus  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  (termed  by  Mr.  Darwin,  who  quotes  the 
following  passage,  *'  our  great  philosopher,") 
says,  "  I  believe  that  the  experiences  of  utility 
organized  and  consolidated  through  all  past 
generations  of  the  human  race,  have  been  pro- 
ducing corresponding  modifications,  which,  by 
continued  transmission  and  accumulation  have 

*  "Descent  of  Man,"  Vol.  i.,  p.  73. 


CONSCIENCE  EXCLUSIVELY  HUMAN.       315 

become  in  us  certain  moral  faculties  of  moral 
intuition — certain  emotions  responding  to  un- 
just and  wrong  conduct,  which  have  no 
apparent  basis  in  the  individual  experience  of 
utility." 

What  is  the  value  of  this  but  a  connection 
between  mental  and  social  phenomena  which 
the  authors  themselves  perceive  or  believe,  but 
which  has  no  foundation  in  the  common  opinion 
of  mankind,  and  which  is  indeed  contrary  to 
our  primary  and  our  religious  instincts.  No 
considerations  of  utility  answer  to  the  solution 
of  the  problem,  which  is  this — Present  and 
operative  the  moral  sense  in  man,  even  in 
many  instances  in  his  savage  state  : — that  being 
given,  how  are  we  to  discover  its  origin  ?  There 
is  nothing  corresponding  to  it  in  the  inferior 
animals,  and  we  look  to  the  human  race  for 
its  first  real  manifestation.  All  the  resemblances 
to  it  previously  displayed  by  animals  are  so  faint 
and  so  undefinable  as  to  fall  altogether  short  of 
derivative  connection  with  it ;  when  observed  in 
the  human  race,  it  is  plainly  an  initial  and 
newly  imparted  principle.  If  founded  upon 
the  consolidation  of  an  exceedingly  long  accu- 
mulation of  experiences  of  utility,  whence  came 
the  primary  experience  of  utility  ?  whence  came 


3i6  CONSCIENCE  AGAINST   UTILITY, 


the  accumulative  growth  ?  at  what  stage  oc- 
curred the  conversion  of  an  accumulation  of 
experiences  of  utility  into  that  entirely  different 
thing,  the  moral  sense  of  man;  which,  as  shown 
by  Mr.  Wallace,  and  as  well  known  to  all,  in  its 
nobler  exercises  utterly  discards  utility,  openly 
rejects  it  as  a  principle  of  action,  and  looks 
fixedly  to  the  good,  and  above  the  useful  to  the 
true  and  the  self-denying  ?  The  moral  sense  of 
man,  and  the  religious  feeling  associated  with 
it  in  many  exhibitions  of  its  power,  goes  against 
all  the  accumulated  experiences  of  utility  of 
past  generations.  It  wars  against  the  w^orld 
and  its  laws.  Accumulated  experiences,  of  mere 
utility  in  the  present  are  opposed  to  it,  and  so 
far  as  their  activity  and  power  extend,  would 
extinguish  it.  A  sense  of  selfish  or  social 
utility  may,  and  sometimes  does,  govern  men 
so  far  as  make  them  rebel  against  their  moral 
sense;  but  selfish  adherence  to  the  idea  of  present 
utility  is  regarded  as  our  bane,  not  as  the  con- 
quence  of  the  exercise  of  moral  sense.  If  our 
moral  sense  and  conscience  be  not  directly  and 
distinctively  implanted  in  us  by  the  Deity,  then 
man  has  no  principle  directly  derived  from 
Him ;  the  very  result,  however,  at  which 
naturalistic  systems  are  designed  to  arrive  by 


DARWIN'S  ACQUIRED   CONSCIENCE.        317 

their  advocates.  Yet  when  they  desire  to  bring 
us  to  this  result,  the  burden  of  proof  rests 
upon  the7n.  Faint  adumbrations  of  animal 
intelligence,  indistinct  lines  of  supposed  con- 
nection, and  wholly  imaginary  deductions  from 
a  few  selected  phenomena  of  Natural  History, 
are  utterly  inadequate  to  sustain  a  strong 
contradiction  to  our  primary  beliefs. 

One  additional  extract  from  Mr.  Darwin's 
new  book  will  show  how  he  regards  some  of 
the  stronger  feelings  in  man's  moral  nature. 

"At  the  moment  of  action,  man  will  no  doubt 
be  apt  to  follow  the  stronger  influence,  and 
though  this  may  occasionally  prompt  him  to 
the  nobler  deeds,  it  will  far  more  commonly 
leave  him  to  gratify  his  own  desire  at  the 
expense  of  other  men.  But  after  that  gratifi- 
cation, when  past  and  weaker  impressions  are 
contrasted  with  the  ever-enduring  social  inter- 
ests, retribution  will  surely  come.  Man  will 
then  feel  dissatisfied  with  himself,  and  will 
resolve  with  more  or  less  force  to  act  differently 
for  the  future.  This  is  conscience ;  for  con- 
science looks  backward  and  judges  past  actions, 
inducing  that  kind  of  dissatisfaction,  which  if 
weak  we  call  regret,  and  if  severe,  remorse. 

*'  These  sensations  are  no  doubt  different  from 


3i8       DARWIN  ON  PERSISTENT  INSTINCT. 

those  experienced  when  other  instincts  are  left 
unsatisfied;  but  every  unsatisfied  instinct  has 
its  own  proper  prompting  sensation,  as  we 
recognize  with  hunger,  thirst,  etc.  Man  thus 
prompted  will  through  long  habit  acquire  such 
prompt  self-command,  that  his  desires  and 
passions  will  at  last  instantly  yield  to  his  social 
sympathies,  and  there  will  no  longer  be  a 
struggle  between  them.  The  still  hungry, 
and  the  still  revengeful  man  will  not  think  of 
stealing  food,  or  of  wreaking  his  vengeance.  It 
is  possible,  or,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  even 
probable,  that  the  habit  of  self-command  may, 
like  other  habits,  be  inherited.  Thus  at  last 
man  comes  to  feel,  through  acquired,  and 
perhaps  inherited  habits,  that  it  is  best  for  him 
to  obey  his  more  persistent  instincts.  The 
imperious  word  oicght  seems  merely  to  imply 
the  consciousness  of  the  existence  of  a  per- 
sistent instinct,  either  innate  or  partly  acquired, 
serving  him  as  a  guide,  though  liable  to  be 
disobeyed.  We  hardly  use  the  word  oitg/it  in  a 
metaphysical  sense,  when  we  say  hounds  ought 
to  hunt,  pointers  to  point,  and  retrievers  to  re- 
trieve their  game.  If  they  fail  thus  to  act,  they 
fail  in  their  duty  and  act  wrongly. 

*'  If  any  desire   or   instinct,  leading  to   an 


SYMPATHETIC  CONSCIENCE.  319 

action  opposed  to  the  good  of  others,  still  ap- 
pears to  a  man,  when  re-called  to  mind,  as 
strong-  as,  or  stronger  than  his  social  instincts, 
he  will  feel  no  keen  regret  at  having  followed 
it ;  but  he  will  be  conscious,  that  if  his  conduct 
were  known  to  his  fellows,  it  would  meet  with 
their  disapprobation ;  and  few  are  so  destitute 
of  sympathy  as  not  to  feel  discomfort  when  this 
is  realized.  If  he  has  no  such  sympathy,  and 
if  his  desires  leading  to  bad  actions  are  at  the 
time  strong,  and  when  recalled  are  not  over- 
mastered by  the  persistent  social  instincts, 
then  he  is  essentially  a  bad  man ;  and  the  sole 
restraining  motive  left  is  the  fear  of  punishment, 
and  the  conviction  that  in  the  long  run  it  would 
be  best  for  his  own  selfish  interests  to  regain 
the  good  of  others  rather  than  his  own. 

"It  is  obvious  that  every  one  may  with  an 
easy  conscience  gratify  his  own  desires,  if  they 
do  not  interfere  with  his  moral  instincts,  that 
is,  with  the  good  of  others  ;  but  in  order  to  be 
quite  free  from  self-reproach,  or  at  least  of 
anxiety,  it  is  almost  necessary  for  him  to  avoid 
the  disapprobation,  whether  reasonable  or  not, 
of  his  fellow-men.  Nor  must  he  break  through 
the  fixed  habits  of  his  life,  especially  if  these 
are  supported  by  reason  ;  for  if  he  does,  he  will 


320  PAGAN  MORALISM. 


assuredly  feel  dissatisfaction.  He  must  likewise 
avoid  the  disapprobation  of  the  one  God,  or 
gods,  in  whom,  according  to  his  knowledge  or 
superstition,  he  may  believe ;  but  in  this  case 
the  additional  fear  of  Divine  punishment  often 
supervenes."  * 

Does  not  this  read  rather  like  an  extract  from 
Seneca  or  Plutarch,  than  from  an  accomplished 
author  now  living  in  England  ?  Let  these 
passages  be  carefully  perused,  and  it  will  at 
once  be  seen  that  strict  Naturalism  here  super- 
sedes all  religious  impulses,  and  that  the  moral 
sense  of  man  is  placed  on  a  level  with  the 
ought  of  dogs,  who  ought  to  hunt,  point,  and 
retrieve — and  who,  if  they  do  not,  fail  in  their 
duty  and  act  wrongly,  as  man  does  when  he 
does  not  perform  what  he  ougJit.  Here  we  have 
no  higher  appeal  in  one  case  than  to  the  canine, 
and  in  the  other  than  to  the  social  conscience. 
Let  the  whole  of  these  passages,  and  of  the 
chapter  of  which  they  afford  a  fair  specimen,  be 
studied  in  the  light  of  the  recent  tremendous 
events  which  have  happened  in  France,  and 
then  let  a  just  verdict  be  pronounced  on  the 
value  of  the  canine,  or  Communistic,  or  social 
sense  of  ought. 

*  "  Descent  of  Man,"  Vol.  i.,  pp.  91—98. 


REID  Oi\T  THE  MENTAL  FACULTIES.         321 

Let  also  the  reader  of  these  extracts  from 
Darwin  afterwards  turn  to  some  clear  and  well- 
approved  author  who  has  written  on  mind  and 
morals,  and  observe  how  little  the  one  accords 
with  the  other.  Turn  for  example  to  Thomas 
Reid  on  the  ''  Active  Powers  of  the  Mind,"  and 
peruse  the  following- : — • 

"  The  faculties  of  man  unfold  themselves  in 
a  certain  order,  appointed  by  the  great  Creator. 
In  their  gradual  process  they  may  be  greatly 
assisted  or  retarded,  improved  or  corrupted  by 
education,  instruction,  example,  exercise,  and 
by  the  society  and  conversation  of  men,  which, 
like  soil  and  culture  in  plants,  may  produce 
great  changes  to  the  better  or  to  the  worse. 

"  But  these  means  can  never  produce  any 
new  faculties,  nor  any  other  than  were  originally 
planted  in  the  mind  by  the  Author  of  Nature. 
And  what  is  common  to  the  whole  species,  in 
all  the  varieties  of  instruction  and  education,  of 
improvement,  and  degeneracy,  is  the  work  of 
God,  and  not  the  operation  of  second  causes. 

''  Such  we  may  justly  account  conscience,  or 
the  faculty  of  distinguishing  right  conduct  from 
WTong  ;  since  it  appears,  and  in  all  nations  and 
ages,  has  appeared  in  men  that  are  come  to 
maturity.     The  seeds,  as  it  were,  of  moral  dis- 

21 


322  SURVEY  OF  DARWINISM. 

cernment  are  planted  in  the  mind  by  him  that 
made  us."  * 

Without,  for  the  present,  pursuing  the  course 
of  Mr.  Darwin's  arguments,  or  apologetic 
opinions,  in  this  page,  let  us  take  a  brief  survey 
from  the  point  at  which  we  have  arrived. 
From  this  summit-level  we  can  clearly  and 
comprehensively  glance  round  at  what  Mr. 
Darwin  has  attempted  and  accomplished,  or 
failed  to  accomplish.  He  has  conducted  his 
readers  through  the  entanglements  of  the 
Origin  of  Species,  and  has  attempted  to  show 
them  that  the  effects  which  man  brings  to  pass 
in  the  breeding  of  certain  animals  by  means  of 
the  use  of  his  knowledge  of  Selection,  and  by 
the  exercise  of  his  ivill  in  making  such  selection, 
is  a  ground  for  a  theory  of  the  Transformation 
of  Species  in  Nature  by  something  which  ha,8  no 
ivill,  no  objective  existence,  and  which  is 
called  Natural  Selection.  Necessarily  a  meta- 
phcrical  factor  has  not  personal  will;  necessarily 
inorganic  matter  can  have  no  w^ill ;  necessarily 
no  "  Law  of  Nature  "  can  have  a  will,  because 
the  law  itself  is  by  hypothesis  inflexible  and 
unalterable,  and  if  it  had  will,  would  cease  to 
be  so,  because  that  will  might  change.    There- 

*  Reid.     Ed.  Hamilton,  p.  595 


THE   GENESIS   OF   VOLITION. 


fore,  we  see  that  the  Darwinian  theory  is  based 
upon  w^hat  man  accomplishes  by  the  exercise 
of  choice  and  means,  while  the  executive  agent 
or  agents  in  that  theory  cannot,  in  consistency 
with  their  impersonality,  exhibit  w///  in  the 
manner  of  a  human  personality. 

Yet,  although  they  cannot  exercise  will, 
although  they  are  merely  metaphorical  expres- 
sions for  something  else  never  explained,  they, 
and  especially  the  particular  and  chief  agent, 
have  been  operating  from  the  infinitely  remote 
period  of  the  creation  of  the  first  primordial 
germ  or  germs  of  organized  existence.  By  se- 
lective, and  intensely  energetic  selective  action, 
this  principal  power  or  agency  without  person- 
ality has  brought  into  existence  a  wonderful 
series  of  consequences,  which,  when  contem- 
plated altogether,  astonish  man,  and  would 
even  astonish  any  higher  beings,  if  there  be 
such,  than  the  human  race,  especially  as  the 
survey  of  existence  by  higher  beings  would  be 
broader  than  the  survey  open  to  man. 

But  as  man,  and  particularly  higher  beings 
than  himself,  exercise  will  to  a  great  extent,  and 
in  the  survey  of  Nature  behold  innumerable  re- 
sults which  their  united  wills  could  not  achieve, 
what  would  be  their  astonishment  to  learn  that 


•^24  NO-W.ILL  HAS  EVOLVED    WILE 


all  these  are  brought  to  pass  by  something 
which  subsequently  evolves  will,  which  unac- 
countably acts  by  it,  and  which,  though  acting 
from  unreckonable  time,  through  unnumbered 
ages,  and  acting  always  for  the  preservation  of 
the  beneficial  and  the  extinction  of  the  injurious 
and  the  weak,  nevertheless  is  will-less  and 
soulless,  and  possesses  nothing  more  than  a 
name? 

Lo  !  here  at  the  end  of  the  series  of  natural 
marvels  is  Man — Man,  the  wonder  and  the 
glory  of  the  universe  !  Emphatically  he  is  so, 
and  one  of  his  principal  claims  to  universal 
wonder  and  glory  is  that  he  exercises  will, 
choice,  and  preference,  and  partly  controls  in- 
animate and  animate  Nature  by  them  ;  and  the 
higher  he  rises,  and  the  more  cultured  and  pro- 
nounced his  intellectual  power,  the  stronger,  the 
nobler,  the  more  dominant  is  his  will.  The  will 
of  man  is  indeed  a  wonderful  power;  how  was 
it  produced  ?  by  that  which  had  no  volition  ;  yet 
that  which  has  operated  involuntarily  has  evolved 
him — man  with  his  will  as  well  as  his  moral 
sense  ;  that  is,  some  agencies  metaphorically 
represented  by  Natural  or  Sexual  Selection, 
which  hypothetically  and  metaphorically  can 
have  no  will,  have  evolved  the  highest  embodi- 


A    CHOICE   OF  MYTHS.  325 

ment  of  will  known  to  our  earth  !  In  brief, 
No- Will  has  evolved  Will ! 

Now  a  reader  of  the  works  of  strict  natural- 
ists is  accustomed  to  see  scoffs  at  what  are 
sneeringly called  "  Hebrew  myths,"  particularly 
at  the  creation  of  matter  out  of  nothing. 
Here,  however,  I  find  this  very  Hebrew  myth 
equalled  or  surpassed  in  incredibility.  No- Will 
has  evolved  human  will.  For  this,  I  have  no 
testimony  but  that  of  Mr.  Darwin  and  other 
evolutionists,  for  the  other  I  have  a  testimony  at 
the  least  somewhat  higher,  and  at  the  least 
accepted  by  a  majority  of  cultivated  mankind. 

A  ''Hebrew  myth"  (it  is  Mr.  Spencer's 
phrase)  also  informs  me  that  God  created  man 
and  woman,  and  I  am  led  by  this  myth  to  sup- 
pose that  such  creation  was  special,  whether 
so  as  to  body  and  soul,  or  only  as  to  soul,  I  am 
not  about  to  discuss  at  this  moment ;  but  in 
distinct  terms,  the  human  creation  is  represented 
as  a  special  or  overt  act  of  God.  In  contra- 
diction to  this  Hebrew  myth,  Mr.  Spencer 
ridicules  in  the  most  pointed  terms  the  idea  of 
any  special  creation,  and  Mr.  Darwin  congratu- 
lates himself  that  he  has  at  least  done  some- 
thing praiseworthy  in  overturning  this  dogma. 
How  ?   By  agencies  deficient  in  personality,  and 


326         NO    THOUGHT  EVOLVES  THOUGHT. 


to  which  nothing  but  a  scientific  myth  gives  a 
name !  Of  the  two  myths,  which  will  men 
prefer?  Assuredly  the  Hebrew  myth  is  at  least 
as  credible  as  the  Darwinian.  Let  us  omit 
inspiration  and  authority,  and  confine  ourselves 
to  reasonableness  and  credibleness.  If  one  be 
*'  unthinkable,"  (to  borrow  Mr.  Spencer's  fa- 
vourite term)  so  is  the  other.  Then  if  they  are 
both  and  equally  unthinkable,  I  take  my  choice, 
and  I  prefer  the  Mosaic  or  Biblical  to  the  Dar- 
winian myth.  Suppose  both  to  be  myths, 
which  of  the  two  is  the  more  acceptable  myth  ? 
But  when  we  arrive  at  man's  mind,  psycho- 
logy, and  his  moral  sense,  conscience,  and  duty, 
I  find  the  Darwinian  myth  absolutely  and  hope- 
lessly incredible.  In  trying  to  think  it,  I  exer- 
cise that  power  of  mine  which  is  said  to  be 
in  me  the  evolved  product  of  another  power, 
which,  however,  being  merely  a  metaphor  or 
name,  could  not  think.  My  brain  operates  so 
as  to  impel  me  to  a  choice  after  full  considera- 
tion. What  influences  me  to  this  choice  ? 
Thought  and  reasoning.  What  evolved  or 
made  thought  and  reason  in  me  ?  That  which 
has  neither  ;  that  which  is  nothing.  Thus  No- 
Thought  has  evolved  my  thought.  £x  nihilo 
nihil  Jit  has  been  the  world-ruling  apothegm, 


SUPERIOR  INTELLIGENCE  NECESSARY.     327 

but  it  Is  false,  for  here  behold  Ex  nihilo  aliqitid. 
Ex  nihilo  Mens!  If  this  be  not  the  Darwinian  for- 
mula, I  know  not  what  to  substitute  in  its  place. 
In  reply  to  this  formula,  Mr.  Wallace 
would  probably  say,  "  Natural  Selection  is  onl). 
a  means  by  which  the  Creator  worked  ;  "  if  so, 
as  before  argued,  our  difference  is  chiefly  ver- 
bal ;  but  this  is  apparently  not  the  view  of  Mr. 
Darwin,  as  I  gather  from  his  books.  It  is  the 
view  of  Mr.  Wallace,  and  the  consequence  is 
that  he  is  necessarily,  though  reluctantly,  con- 
ducted to  the  belief  that  man  is  specially  de- 
veloped by  a  superior  intelligence.  *'  The 
inference"  (to  cite  his  own  words)  *' I  would 
draw  from  this  class  of  phenomena  is  that  a 
superior  intelligence  has  guided  the  develop- 
ment of  man  In  a  definite  direction,  and  for  a 
special  purpose,  just  as  man  guides  the  deve- 
lopment of  many  animal  and  vegetable  forms. 
The  laws  of  Evolution  alone  would,  perhaps, 
never  have  produced  a  grain  so  well  adapted 
to  man's  use  as  wheat  and  maize,  such  fruits  as 
the  seedless  banana  and  bread-fruit,  or  such 
animals  as  the  Guernsey  milch  cow,  or  the 
London  dray  horse.  Yet  these  so  closely 
resemble  the  unaided  productions  of  nature, 
that  we  may  well  imagine  a  being  who  had 


328  MR.    WALLACE'S  ADMLSSLON. 

mastered  the  laws  of  development  of  organic 
forms  through  past  ages,  refusing  to  believe 
that  any  new  power  had  been  concerned  in 
their  production,  and  scornfully  rejecting  the 
theory  (as  my  theory  will  be  rejected  by  many 
who  agree  with  me  on  other  points)  that  in 
these  few  cases  a  controlling  intelligence  has 
directed  the  action  of  the  laws  of  variation, 
multiplication,  and  survival,  for  his  own  pur- 
poses. We  know,  however,  that  this  has  been 
done,  and  w^e  must  therefore  admit  the  possi- 
bility that,  if  we  are  not  the  highest  intelli- 
gencies  in  the  universe,  some  higher  intelli- 
gence may  have  directed  the  process  by  which 
the  human  race  was  developed,  by  means  of 
more  subtle  agencies  than  we  are  acquainted 
with.  At  the  same  time,  I  must  confess  that 
this  theory  has  the  disadvantage  of  requiring 
the  intervention  of  some  distinct  individual 
intelligence,  to  aid  in  what  we  can  hardly  avoid 
considering  as  the  ultimate  aim  and  outcome  of 
all  organized  existence,  intellectual,  ever- 
advancing,  spiritual  man.  It  therefore  implies 
that  the  great  laws  which  govern  the  material 
universe  were  insufficient  for  his  production, 
unless  we  consider  (as  we  may  fairly  do)  that 
the  controlling  action   of  such  higher  intelli- 


DESTRUCTIVE  RESULTS  OF  NATURALISM.  329 

gences  Is  a  necessary  part  of  those  laws,  just 
as  the  action  of  all  surrounding  organisms 
is  one  of  the  agencies  in  organic  development.* 

This  very  instructive  passage  derives  its  im- 
portance from  its  author's  claim  before  men- 
tioned as  the  thinker  who  evolved  from  his  own 
mind  the  idea  of  Natural  Selection,  and  of 
which  he  is  one  of  the  foremost  advocates  and 
supporters. 

If  there  be  any  advantage  in  continuing  our 
retrospective  survey  of  the  Darwinian  hypo- 
thesis from  the  summit  level  of  man,  the  ad- 
vantage will  chiefly  be  found  in  an  exposure  of 
the  dangerous  and  destructive  consequences  to 
Society  which  would  follow  from  the  universal 
reception  of  such  a  system  of  pure  Naturalism. 

Society  cannot  be  kept  together  without 
religion,  and  this  even  Mr.  Spencer  admits 
very  openly.  Now  the  universal  reception  of 
the  theory  that  man,  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  is 
evolved  by  some  such  purely  natural  agencies 
as  Natural  and  Sexual  Selection — always  re- 
membering that  they  are  represented  exclusively 
as  natural  by  Mr.  Darwin ;  and  quite  apart  from 
my  admission  that  there  are  certain  principles 
more  or  less  closely   corresponding   to  these, 

*  Wallace  on  Natural  Selection,  p.  360. 


330  NATURALISM  DESTRUCTIVE  OF  RELIGION. 

which  are  means  by  which  the  Creator 
creates  and  preserves,  or  evolves  or  derives, 
as  respects  the  material  world — the  universal 
reception,  I  repeat,  of  pure,  total,  and  exclusive 
Naturalism  in  relation  to  body  and  soul,  matter 
and  spirit,  would  evidently  destroy  the  first 
principles  of  spiritual  religion.  The  extracts 
from  Mr.  Darwin  given  in  these  pages  suffi- 
ciently show  this,  but  a  perusal  of  his  entire 
works  would  make  it  distinctly  manifest. 

Primarily,  if  man,  as  a  whole,  be  nothing 
beyond  the  last  trophy  or  climax  of  Natural  and 
Sexual  Selection,  then  (putting  aside  minor 
questions  relating  to  the  descent  of  man  from 
the  inferior  animals)  he  is  nothing  more  than  the 
highest  zoological  organism,  the  last  and  best 
animal  beyond  beasts  or  brutes,  these  terms 
being  here,  of  course,  used  in  a  zoological  sense. 
He  is  not  a  distinct  creation  ;  by  hypothesis  he 
is  determined  not  to  be  such,  and  all  his  hopes 
and  fears,  all  his  religion,  all  his  art,  poetry, 
music,  and  imagination,  are  the  ultimate  out- 
comes of  supreme  animality.  He  is  as  one  of 
the  beasts  that  perish,  he  came  into  existence  as 
they  do,  and  like  them  he  goes  out  of  existence. 

Secondarily  :  If  all  his  mental  and  moral  and 
psychical    faculties    are    simply    evolutions    of 


NATURALISM  DESTRUCTIVE  OF  RELIGION.  331 


Utilitarianism  and  sociology,  if  they  have  their 
origin  and  their  ends  as  in  Mr.  Darwin's  views 
above  expressed,  then  there  is  no  need  of 
God  to  man.  and  no  immediate  use  of  God  to 
man,  and  no  obligation  of  man  to  God.  His 
obligation,  under  such  views,  is  to  his  fellow- 
men  ;  his  moral  instincts  spring  from  sympathy 
with  his  fellow-men ;  his  regrets  and  remorse 
only  apply  to  his  failures  of  duty  and  sympathy 
towards  them.  Any  other  kind  of  remorse  or 
regret  has  a  reference  to  the  fear  of  punishment 
by  any  God  or  gods  in  whom  man  may  believe. 
Now  it  must  be  obvious  that  for  those  who 
hold  such  sentiments  there  can  be  no  other 
religion  than  natural  growth,  no  other  motive 
than  present  utility,  no  further  aim  than  this 
world  and  its  sociology.  What  there  may  be 
of  motive  beyond  these,  springs  from  fear  of 
punishment  by  some  one  God,  or  by  many 
gods. 

When  a  man  is  taught  only  to  trace  his 
moral  and  religious  instincts  downwards  and 
reversely,  he  is  not  likely  often  to  look  up- 
wards and  prospectively.  He  will  not,  there- 
fore, feel  any  obligation  to  worship  the  Spiritual 
Being  known  to  Theists  as  God.  His  education 
and    civilization    will  forbid    him    to    worship 


332  NATURALISM  DESTRUCTIVE  OF  SOCIETY, 

animals,  even  the  animals  constituting  his 
nearest  ancestry.  He  may  be  averse  to 
idolatry,  but  no  appreciation  of  what  Natural 
Selection  has  done  for  him  will  prompt  him  to 
share  in  anything  that  can  bear  the  true 
character  of  religious  worship.  As  an  example, 
a  full  believer  in  the  truth  of  Darwinism  can 
scarcely  ever,  without  the  Darwinian  amount 
of  regret  and  remorse,  employ  one  of  the 
forms  of  prayer  continually  used  in  the 
Prayer  Book  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  for 
instead  of  exclaiming,  '*  We  thank  Thee  for 
our  Creation  and  Preservation,  and  all  the 
blessings  of  this  life,"  he  ought  to  say,  in  all 
truthfulness,  "We  thank  Thee  for  our  Evolu- 
tion, for  Natural  Selection,  and  all  the  blessings 
of  Sexual  Selection."  It  is  manifest  that  the 
extreme  application  of  the  principles  of  this 
theory  would  lead  to  a  burlesque  of  most 
forms  of  religious  worship. 

Without  a  much  higher  origin  than  Mr. 
Darwin  allows  to  the  moral  sense  and  to  regret 
and  remorse,  the  principles  of  social  Law  would 
probably  prove  inefficient,  and  society  would 
return  to  savagery.  To  Communism,  indeed, 
strict  Naturalism  appears  to  be  fully  suitable. 
Immediate  utility  is  its  ruling  principle,  and  ijo 


DARWIN  ON  BELIEF  IN  GOD.  333 

fear  of  God  troubles  it.  No  one  can  read  the 
works,  and  reg^ard  the  acts  of  Communists, 
especially  in  France,  without  observing  that 
the  Communists  do  act  upon  the  most  naked 
Naturalism,  and  the  extremest  views  of  utili- 
tarianism. Let  it  be  repeated  that  no  fair 
opponent  of  Mr.  Darwin  will  involve  him  per- 
sonally in  any  extreme  consequences  of  his 
theory,  but  when  adverting"  to  such  conse- 
quences, the  use  of  his  name  becomes  unavoid- 
able. I  employ  the  term  "  pure  naturalists"  as 
frequently  as  possible,  in  order  to  escape  the 
repetition  of  respected  names.  While,  however 
reluctant  to  continue  the  use  of  this  name,  I 
cannot  forbear  continuing  in  a  few  paragraphs 
the  same  course  of  remark  as  to  the  effects  of 
any  such  purely  naturalistic  hypothesis  of  the 
origin  and  psychical  evolution  of  man.  ''  The 
belief  in  God,"  says  Mr.  Darwin,  "  has  been 
often  advanced  as  not  only  the  greatest, 
but  the  most  complete  of  all  the  distinctions 
between  man  and  the  lower  animals.  It  is, 
however,  impossible,  as  we  have  seen,  to  main- 
tain that  this  belief  is  innate  or  instinctive  in 
man.  On  the  other  hand,  a  belief  in  all  per- 
vading spiritual  agencies  seems  to  be  universal, 
and   apparently   follows   from   a   considerable 


334  SOURCE   OF  BELIEF  IN  GOD, 

advance  in  the  reasoning  powers  of  man,  and 
from  a  still  greater  advance  in  his  faculties  of 
imagination,  curiosity,  and  wonder.  I  am 
aware  that  the  assumed  instinctive  belief  in 
God  has  been  used  by  many  persons  as  an 
argument  for  His  existence.  But  this  is  a  rash 
argument,  as  we  should  thus  be  compelled  to 
believe  in  the  existence  of  many  evil  and 
malignant  spirits,  possessing  only  a  little  more 
power  than  man  ;  for  the  belief  in  them  is  far 
more  general  than  of  a  beneficent  Deity.  The 
idea  of  a  universal  and  beneficent  Creator  of 
the  universe  does  not  seem  to  arise  in  the  mind 
of  man,  until  he  has  been  elevated  by  long- 
continued  culture." 

If  our  belief  in  God  be  not  instinctive  or  in- 
nate, if  it  be  an  exception  to  the  power  of 
the  evolutionary  agent,  whether  natural  or 
other  selection  ;  and  since  it  is  confessed  that  it 
follows  only  from  a  considerable  advance  in 
the  reasoning  power  and  other  faculties  of  man, 
then  it  is  surely  imparted  to  man  by  a  distinct 
power  far  above  Nature.  If  so,  why  may  not 
the  other  and  allied  human  psychical  principles, 
such  as  the  moral  sense,  and  such  as  belief  in  the 
soul's  existence  and  immortality,  be  imparted 
to  man  by  the  samie  supernatural  power  .^     If 


A   DISTINCT  BELIEF  IN  MAN.  335 

our  belief  in  God  be  not  a  consequence  of  Evo- 
lution, how  can  other  beliefs  be  ?  How  can 
our  belief  in  utility,  our  belief  in  sympathy 
towards  and  from  our  fellow-man,  our  belief 
even  in  their  existence,  be  evolved  in  us  ?  If 
the  highest  of  these  beliefs  be  independent  of 
derivative  production,  how  can  the  lowest  o(  the 
same  nature  be  other  than  exceptions  ?  and  if 
all  are  exceptions  to  it,  then  why  are  not  all 
our  mental  capacities  and  faculties  equal  ex- 
ceptions ?  If  long-  continued  cultivation  can 
originate  and  perfect  one,  and  that  one  of  the 
most  important  of  our  ideas,  why  not  all  ?  and 
if  all,  what  does  the  human  mind  owe  to 
Natural  Selection,  or  any  other  similar 
agency?     It  is  essentially  distinct. 

Again,  no  amount  of  culture  can  be  con- 
ceived as  capable  of  originating  and  advancing 
in  any  animal  below  that  of  man  the  idea  of  a 
universal  and  beneficent  Creator  of  the  universe. 
This  will  be  at  once  admitted  as  an  impossibility. 
But  if  so,  it  is  a  distinct  belief  or  principle  in  man ; 
therefore  by  so  much  is  man  a  distinct  species ; 
and  his  possession  of  this  belief  is  so  special 
as  to  specialize  him  from  all  inferior  animals, 
and  hence  no  process  of  natural  transition  or 
evolution  can  account  for  his  mental  capacities. 


336  THE  QUESTION  OF  IRRELIGION, 

Once  more,  "  On  the  other  hand,  a  belief  in 
all-pervading  spiritual  agencies  seems  to  be 
universal."  It  is  not  so  in  the  lower  animals,  and 
does  not  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  exist  in  them 
at  all.  Therefore  this  also  is  a  distinctly 
human  and  universally  human  belief,  and  there- 
by universally  separates  man  from  the  inferior 
zoological  organisms,  and  again  implies  his 
special  creation,  at  least  in  part. 

"  I  am  aware,"  confesses  Mr.  Darwin,  *^  that 
the  conclusions  arrived  at  in  this  work  will  be 
denounced  by  some  as  highly  irreligious,  but 
he  w^io  thus  denounces  them  is  bound  to  show 
why  it  is  more  irreligious  to  explain  the  origin 
of  man  as  a  distinct  species  from  some  lower 
form  through  the  laws  of  variation  and  natural 
selection  than  to  explain  the  birth  of  the  indi- 
vidual through  the  laws  of  ordinary  represen- 
tation. The  birth  both  of  the  species  and  of 
the  individual  are  equally  parts  of  that  grand 
sequence  of  events  which  our  minds  refuse  to 
accept  as  the  results  of  blind  chance.  The 
understanding  revolts  at  such  a  conclusion, 
whether  or  not  we  are  able  to  believe  that 
every  slight  variation  of  structure,  the  union  of 
each  pair  in  marriage,  the  dissemination  of 
each  seed,  and  other  such  events,  have  all  been 


THE   QUESTION  OF  IRRELIGION.  337 

ordained  for  some  special  purpose."     (Descent 
of  Man,  ii.,  396.) 

Surely  the  difference  between  the  two  pro- 
cesses cannot  have  escaped  so  acute  a  mind  as 
that  of  Mr.  Darwin.  To  explain  the  birth  of 
an  individual  through  the  laws  of  ordinary  re- 
production, is  to  explain  an  undoubted  and 
universally  known  phenomenon.  To  explain 
the  origin  of  Man  as  a  distinct  species  by 
descent  from  some  lower  form,  through  the 
laws  of  variation  and  Natural  Selection,  is  to 
explain  merely  an  hypothesis,  not  a  universally 
observed  and  accepted  fact.  All  the  human 
world  knows  the  one  to  be  true ;  a  very  in- 
significant portion  of  that  world  believes  in  the 
other — and  no  mere  belief  can  prove  it  to  be  a 
fact. 

Whether  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  the 
author  of  any  book  be  irreligious  must  be 
judged  not  by  the  author's  state  of  mind  in 
making  them  public,  nor  by  anything  in  his 
personal  character  or  belief.  The  judgment 
must  be  founded  on  the  consequences  which 
would  follow  if  his  conclusions,  when  an- 
nounced and  published,  should  be  universally 
adopted  and  carried  out  to  their  extreme  length. 
Judged  in  this  way  a  considerable  number  of 

2.2 


338     PERNICIOUS  RESULTS  OF  NA TURALISM. 


persons  must  believe  that  Mr.  Darwin's  book 
has  a  decidedly  irreligious  tendency,  and  that 
his  conclusions  could  not  be  generally  adopted 
without  the  subversion  of  the  religious  prin- 
ciples which  pervade  and  actuate  the  greater 
number  of  European  societies.  Further,  as 
before  intimated,  so  far  as  Religion  cements 
and  conserves  society,  and  influences  and 
controls  it,  so  far  the  general  reception  of 
these  conclusions  would  be  subversive  of  the 
highest  public  principle.  Subtract  from  any 
modern  society  a  distinct  belief  in  creation 
and  the  Creator,  the  certainty  of  the  existence 
of  a  beneficent  God  and  his  continual  con- 
nection with  Nature,  the  belief  of  His  spiritual 
accessibleness  and  nearness,  man's  instinc- 
tive conviction  that  he  possesses  a  divinely 
given  soul,  its  separation  from  all  evolutions  and 
developments  of  matter,  its  essential  spirituality 
and  immortality ;  and  finally,  subtract  the  con- 
viction of  the  responsibility  of  all  souls  for  deeds 
and  thoughts  to  the  arbitrament  of  the  Deity, 
as  absolutely  distinguished  from  utilitarian  and 
social  arbitraments  ;  subtract  ^dl  these  from  any 
modern  society,  or  weaken  their  influence  by 
attributing  them  to  Natural  Evolution  or  to 
Natural  Culture,  then  the  result  w^ill  speedily 


PERNICIOUS  RESULTS  OF  NATURALISM.    339 

be  social  degradation  or  uncontrollable  disorder. 
These  beliefs  have  been  subtracted  or  weakened 
aforetime,  as  French  and  other  history  informs 
us,  and  we  know  the  sad  consequences.  These 
beliefs  are  subtracted  in  our  day  from  small  so- 
cieties, and  we  feel  the  consequences  too  pain- 
fully. They  may  again  be  subtracted,  and 
there  is  too  much  reason  to  fear  that  they  will 
be  from  larger  societies.  The  consequences 
can  only  be  what  they  have  been  in  the  past. 
In  such  conditions  of  society — History  will 
repeat  itself. 

Let  the  reader  reflect  for  himself  upon  the 
doctrine  that  Natural  Selection  has  evolved 
moral  conceptions  from  numerous  antecedent 
observations  of  what  was  useful  or  socially 
pleasant,  by  preserving  a  greater  number  of 
those  which  have  been  directed  to  the  useful 
and  the  pleasant,  than  those  which  have  not  been 
so  directed.  Then  let  him  attempt  to  derive 
from  this  supposition  the  m^oral  idea  of  recti- 
tude and  duty,  of  ought  or  should,  and  sub- 
stitute this  for  the  Theistic  origin  of  moral 
obligation  and  duty,  and  if  not  only  the  unphilo- 
sophical,  but  also  the  irreligious  chara.cter  of 
such  a  process,  does  not  appear  to  him,  then  it 
is  in  vain  to  attempt  to  display  to  him  the  per- 


340      MR.    SPENCER'S  GENESIS   OF  MORALS. 

niciousness  of  the  theory,  and  its  direct  ten- 
dency to  eliminate  all  the  higher  conceptions 
of  God  and  responsibility,  and  sin,  and  crime, 
and  obligation  from  human  society. 

It  may  be  well  to  quote  in  this  place  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer's  precise  statement  of  his 
views  on  this  subject,  as  they  are  evidently 
those  of  Mr.  Darwin,  in  common  with  others  of 
the  same  school — *' Just  in  the  same  way  that 
I  believe  the  intuition  of  space  possessed  by 
any  living  individual  to  have  arisen  from 
organized  and  consolidated  experiences  of  all 
antecedent  individuals,  who  bequeathed  to  him 
their  slowly  developed  nervous  organizations, 
etc. — so  do  I  believe  that  the  experiences  of 
utility,  organized  and  consolidated  through  all 
past  generations  of  the  human  race  have  been 
producing  corresponding  nervous  modifica- 
tions, which  by  continued  transmissions  and 
accumulations,  have  become  in  us  certain  facul- 
ties of  moral  intuition,  active  emotions  respond- 
ing to  right  and  wrong  conduct,  which  have  no 
apparent  basis  in  the  individual  experiences  of 
utility."  Mr.  Hutton  has  taken  the  pains  to  re- 
fute the  Spencerian  genesis  of  morals,  and  if  it 
be  not  self-refuting,  Mr.  Hutton  has  certainly 
shown  its  insufficiency  to  account  for  facts. 


NATURALISM  DEFINED.  341 

It  may  be  said  that  I  have  been  attributing  to 
the  Darwinian  theory  effects  which  cannot  sepa- 
rately and  exclusively  issue  from  it,  but  which 
belong-  to  Materialism  in  general,  and  therefore 
should  be  accredited  to  that.  This  appears  just ; 
but  Naturalism*  is  one  phase  of  Materialism, 
and  the  naturalist  who  assigns  every  pheno- 
menal result,  and  every  organism,  and  all  moral 
functions  to  the  agency  of  natural  causes  alone, 
is  in  effect  a  materialist.  The  latter  term  is 
mostly  confined  to  metaphysics,  but  the  conse- 
quences of  both  are  the  same. 

In  order  then  to  include  the  consequences  of 
Darwinism  and  Spencerism  with  those  of  Mate- 
rialism, I  proceed  to  notice  them,  the  latter  as 
briefly  and  particularly  as  may  be,  in  connec- 
tion with  Modern  Science.  For  this  purpose  I 
must  first  explain  the  much-vaunted  and  cer- 
tainly momentous  modern  doctrine  of  Force. 

*  By  Naturalism  I  mean  the  explanation  of  Nature  by  na- 
tural causes  entirely,  or  nearly  so.  It  looks  at  things  only  and 
always  on  their  natural  side,  and  though  it  may  not  absolutely 
exclude  the  name  or  idea  of  God,  makes  little  or  no  use  of  it. 
Thus  Nature,  which  is  merely  a  summary  expression  for  a 
scheme  of  things  to  be  explained,  itself  becomes  the  general 
explanation  of  all  its  special  phenomena.  Strict  Naturalism  is, 
therefore,  equivalent  to  Atheism,  but  the  latter  term  is  cour- 
teously disused.  Of  course  there  are  degrees  and  differences  in 
Naturalism,  but  strict  Naturalism  dispenses  with  Personal  Deity. 


MATTER    AND  FORCE. 


XIV. 

INDESTRUCTIBILITY  OF  MATTER  AND 
FORCE.— THE  CONSERVATION  AND  COR- 
RELATION OF  FORCES. 

JNDESTRUCTIBILITY  of  Matter.— TVis 
doctrine  may  be  illustrated  in  the  burning 
of  a  common  candle.  If  a  small  candle 
be  placed  in  a  glass  tube,  and  the  flame  of 
the  burning  candle  be  made  to  pass  through 
a  tube  containing  soda  which  takes  up  the 
disengaged  carbonic  acid  and  water,  and  if  we 
linally  collect  all  the  products  of  the  burnt 
candle,  we  shall  lind  that  they  actually  weigh 
more  than  the  original  candle,  because  by  the 
act  of  combustion  oxygen  has  been  united  with 
the  component  parts  of  the  candle,  and  by  this 
union  carbonic  acid  and  water  have  been  formed. 
Weighing  these  products  in  a  chemical  bal- 
ance, we  ascertain  the  weight  of  the  additional 
gain  of  oxygen,  and   the  undestroyed,  though 


FORCE  OR  ENERGY.  343 

changed  components  of  the  candle.  In  like 
manner  if  we  ignite  a  piece  of  the  metal  called 
magnesium,  it  will  burn  with  a  brilliant  light, 
and  yield  a  white  solid  known  as  magnesia, 
which  is  formed  by  the  union  of  magnesium 
with  the  oxygen  of  the  air.  Here  too,  by 
weighing  the  magnesia,  we  shall  arrive  at  a 
similar  result.  A  great  number  of  accurate 
experiments  with  the  use  of  a  chemical  bal- 
ance, from  the  time  of  Lavoisier,  who  first 
established  the  doctrine,  to  the  present,  have 
proved  beyond  doubt  the  indestructibility  of 
matter. 

Force  and  Energy, — It  is  now  believed  by  most 
physicists  that  every  change  in  man,  and  every 
change  in  the  chemical  constitution  of  bodies 
is  effected  by  Force  or  Energy  in  such  a  man- 
ner that  light,  heat,  electricity,  magnetism, 
gravity  and  chemical  affinities  may  all  be  con- 
sidered as  convertible  the  one  into  the  other; 
that  is,  that  these  are  not  themselves  different 
principles,  but  different  exhibitions  of  one  prin- 
ciple. This  one  principle  or  action  is  termed 
Force. 

It  is  concluded  from  observation  of  the 
.natural  laws  that  there  is  a  fixed  and  definite 
amount  of  Force  conducting  the  entire  ooera- 


344  KINDS  OF  FORCE. 

tions  of  the  universe.  Therefore,  so  far  as  we 
can  learn,  Force  in  the  physical  world  is  not 
subject  to  decrease  or  increase.  However  or 
whenever  it  appears  in  action,  it  is  one  and  the 
same  in  amount. 

As  it  is  subject  to  no  diminution  so  it  is 
never  lost,  but  it  is  transferable  from  one  object 
to  another  in  endless  transformation. 

Whatever  be  the  true  nature  of  physical 
power,  whether  it  be  merely  a  mode  of  action, 
or  an  immaterial  or  spiritual  agent,  its  action 
is  alleged  to  be  always  controllable  and  con- 
trolled by  what  we  term  physical  laws. 

Kinds  of  Force. — Physicists  generally  recog- 
nize five  kinds  of  force,  one  Mechanical^  or 
Molar  force,  producing  movement  in  mass;  and 
four  Molecular  forces,  producing  movement  in 
molecules.  These  four  are  Heat,  Light,  Chemi- 
cal Force,  and  Electricity.  Probably  we  may 
add  a  fifth  molecular  force — viz.,  the  Nerve 
Force,  which  is  allied  to  Electricity.  It  is  now 
believed  that  all  these  Forces,  except  Light,  are 
interchangeable  according  to  an  assignable 
rate  of  commutation.  An  attempt  has  quite 
lately  been  made  to  distinguish  another  force 
termed  Psychical,  but  though  the  inquiry  is 
curious  it  has  at  present  led  to  no  decided  and 


PERSISTENCE   OF  FORCE.  345 


accepted  result.  The  term  Vital  Force  has  been 
long  in  use  and  widely  accepted,  whether  or 
not  with  propriety  is  a  subject  of  warm  dis- 
cussion amongst  living  savants. 

This  whole  subject  is  at  present  Incompletely 
understood  and  defined,  although  its  principles 
are  regarded  as  indisputable.  Objections,  con- 
sequently, are  frequently  raised  to  particular 
expressions,  which,  however,  do  not  materially 
affect  the  principles  of  the  doctrine.  The  Con- 
servation of  Force  is  the  generally  adopted 
phrase  for  its  indestructibleness,  although  some, 
and  particularly  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  prefer 
the  *' Persistence  of  Force."  This  expression 
he  adopts  to  avoid  the  necessary  presumption 
of  a  Conservator.  With  him  it  is  the  key  to 
all  Science,  but  he  says,  ''  It  is  considered  that 
the  development  of  all  knowledge  into  an  orga- 
nized aggregate  of  direct  and  individual  deduc- 
tions from  the  Persistence  of  Force,  can  be 
achieved  only  in  the  remote  future,  and  cannot 
be  completely  achieved  even  then."  Hence  it 
is  impracticable  at  present  to  employ  terms 
with  satisfaction  and  accuracy.  Sometimes  we 
speak  of  Force,  sometimes  of  Energy ;  some- 
times of  the  Persistence,  sometimes  of  the 
Correlation,  sometimes  of  the  Equivalence  of 


346  GROVE   ON  CORRELATION. 

Forces.        The   same   ideas   are   supposed   to 
underlie  all  these  various  expressions. 

The  phrase  "Correlation  of  Physical  Forces" 
has  been  adopted  by  Mr.  Grove,  whose  Essay  on 
that  subject  is  so  widely  known  and  appre- 
ciated. By  him,  in  fact,  the  doctrine  has  been 
shaped  into  its  present  form,  though  it  niay  be 
carrie ;.  far  beyond  it.  By  him  primarily  it  has 
been  shown  that  the  various  affections  of  matter 
which  constitute  the  object  of  experimental 
ph}sics,  namely  heac,  light,  electricity,  magne- 
tism, chemical  affinity  and  motion,  are  all 
correlative,  that  is,  they  have  a  reciprocal 
dependence  ;  that  not  one  of  them,  regarded  ab- 
stractedly, can  be  said  to  be  the  separate  cause 
of  the  others,  but  that  every  one  often  becomes 
convertible  into  any  of  the  others.  Thus  heat 
may  immediately  or  mediately  produce  electri- 
city, and  electricity  produce  heat.  Each 
merges  itself  as  the  other  force  it  produces 
becomes  developed.  It  is  then  a  fair  conclu- 
sion from  all  observed  physical  phenomena, 
that  no  one  force  can  originate  otherwise  than 
by  devolut'on  from  a  pre-existing  force  or 
forces.  Probably  the  term  "  Transmutation  " 
would  more  accurately  describe  this  relation 
than  the  term  ''  Correlation.*' 


KINETIC  AND  POTENTIAL  ENERGY.         347 

Subordinate  distinctions  are  drawn  between 
Kinetic  and  Potential  Energy.  Kinetic  Energy 
is  the  actual  amount  of  work  a  moving-  body  is 
capable  of  effecting  at  any  instant  during  its 
motion,  and  may  be  estimated  as  soon  as  the 
mass  and  the  velocity  of  the  body  in  motion  is 
known.  When  a  moving  body  reaches  the 
highest  point  of  its  course,  its  Kinetic  Energy 
is  spent.  But  if  free  to  fall  to  its  first  position, 
it  will  acquire  a  Kinetic  Energy  exactly  equal 
to  that  which  has  been  expended  in  raising  it. 
Its  energy  of  motion  has  not  been  lost,  but  has 
been  converted  into  an  advantage  of  position ; 
and  this  advantage  is  termed  Potential  Energy. 
Kinetic  Energy  of  motion  may  be  transformed 
into  heat ;  for  when  the  falling  body  strikes  the 
ground,  the  Kinetic  Energy  is  not  annihilated 
but  converted. 

When  a  train  in  motion  is  brought  to  rest  by 
applying  a  brake,  the  rails  become  hot,  and 
sparks  are  seen  to  fly  from  the  wheels.  Bullets 
shot  to  a  target,  frequently  show  signs  of 
fusion  after  impact.  In  these  and  similar  cases 
the  energy  of  visible  motion  is  transmuted  into 
heat.  The  amount  of  the  one  form  of  energy 
which  will  produce  a  given  amount  of  the  other 
has  been  carefully   calculated,   and   hence   is 


348  HEAT  A   MODE   OF  MOTION. 

derived  the  theory  of  Mechanic^Ll  Equivalents. 
If,  for  example,  a  weight  of  one  pound  be 
raised  to  a  height  of  772  feet,  and  then  be 
allowed  to  fall,  upon  striking  the  ground,  it 
will  generate  as  much  heat  as  will  raise  one 
pound  of  water  to  one  degree  by  Fahrenheit's 
scale  on  the  thermometer. 

It  is  experimentally  ascertained  that  motion 
of  any  kind  can  be  converted  into  heat,  and 
that  heat  can  be  converted  into  motion  ;  and 
since  a  certain  quantity  of  motion  and  a  certain 
quantity  of  heat  are  exactly  equivalent  to  each 
other,  it  is  now  a  generally  admitted  doctrine 
that  what  we  call  heat  is  nothing  more  than  a 
peculiar  kind  of  motion  ;  but  it  is  a  motion  not 
of  the  mass  as  a  whole,  but  of  its  constituent 
particles,  which  are  supposed  to  vibrate.  The 
hotter  the  body,  the  more  rapid  the  vibration 
of  the  particles.  When  heat  is  transformed 
into  mechanical  force,  the  motion  of  the  par- 
ticles is  imparted  to  the  mass. 

Chemical  Force  is  that  which  causes  two  sub- 
stances like  carbon  and  oxygen  to  combine. 
Phosphorus  has  a  strong  tendency  to  combine 
with  iodine,  or  as  chemists  say,  these  have  an 
affinity  for.  each  other.  The  particles  of  the 
one  seem  to   rush  towards  those  of  the  other, 


NO  ANNIHILATION   OF  FORCE.  349 

and  combination  ensues.  When  carbon  combines 
with  oxygen,  the  heat  produced  by  the  conver- 
sion of  the  chemical  force  existing  in  the  ele- 
ments, is  so  great  as  to  give  rise  to  combustion. 
Heat  is  always  evolved  during  combination,  for 
the  chemical  force  which  occasions  the  combina- 
tion is  always  partially  converted  into  heat. 

These  elementary  facts  are  sufficient  to 
enable  the  reader  to  understand  the  principal 
inferences  derived  from  them,  one  of  the  most 
important  of  which,  as  now  received,  is  that 
there  can  be  no  annihilation  of  Force  or 
Energy  ;  nor  so  far  as  matter  or  mass  can  act, 
can  there  be  any  creation  of  energy;  and  there- 
fore its  total  amount  is  constant  through  the 
universe,  in  which  there  is  an  unbroken  Con- 
servation of  Energy  or  Force.  The  attribution 
of  this  to  the  Sun,  and  the  transformation  of  the 
solar  force  into  other  forces  strictly  belong  to 
a  discourse  upon  the  Sun. 

Having  established  the  doctrine  of  Conser- 
vation of  Energy,  and  the  possibility  of  obtain- 
ing a  numerical  equivalence  between  the  various 
forms  of  physical  energy,  exhibited  by  heat, 
light,  chemical  affinity,  electricity,  or  gravita- 
tion, we  are  enabled  to  examine  the  complete 
series  of  any  given  amount  of  actions  in  exter- 


,5o  ENERGY  INDESTRUCTIBLE, 


nal  Nature,  just  as  readily  as  we  can  trace  the 
successive  actions  of  a  train  of  wheels  in  a 
mill.  Understanding  by  Energy  something 
that  is  intelligible  and  perfectly  measurable — 
something  which,  while  it  produces  change  in 
itself,  suffers  no  diminution, — something  that 
in  the  act  of  producing  or  undergoing  a  change 
itself,  undergoes  not  a  change  of  amount  but 
merely  of  distribution,  we  arrive  at  an  invalu- 
able m.ethod  of  treating  physical  phenomena. 
Accordingly  physicists  employ  and  apply  it  to 
the  utmost  of  their  power,  and  by  them  it  is 
carried  out  to  avast  extent  of  comprehen- 
siveness. Biologists  in  like  manner  adopt 
and  extend  it,  and  the  most  objectionable  forms 
of  the  Evolutional  theory  are  founded  upon  it,  as 
though  upon  the  firmest  foundation.  No  one 
English  author  has  carried  it  out  more  compre- 
hensively into  all  regions  of  nature  than  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer.  Truly  he  has  made  it  an 
all-embracing  doctrine.  By  speculating  on  the 
Persistence  or  Equivalence  of  Force,  Mr.  Spen- 
cer, and  those  who  speculate  with  or  like  him, 
profess  to  account  for  everything  and  everybody 
in  the  most  satisfactory  manner.  In  their  hands 
it  becomes  the  clue  to  a  world-wide  Evolution. 
If   we  credit  these  speculators,  we  pass  at 


COMPREHENSIVENESS  OF  THE   DOCTRINE.  351 


once  from  inorganic  to  organic  matter,  and 
from  that  to  mind,  finding  the  vital  forces  to  be 
in  direct  and  exact  correspondence  or  correla- 
tion with  physical  forces.  They  are  the  source 
and  media  of  mind  and  thought.  Mental  acti- 
vity is  an  exact  equivalent  of  the  action  of 
oxydation  in  the  brain.  Of  that  opinion, 
however,  it  will  be  desirable  to  treat  specially 
under  the  head  of  Materialism. 

In  this  page  we  are  endeavouring  to  repre- 
sent to  all  the  outline  of  the  scientific  ideas  of 
Force  and  Energy,  which  is  entirely  a  modern 
doctrine,  and  is  regarded  as  controlling,  if  not 
remodelling,  physical  science. 

When  we  accept  this  doctrine,  we  accept  It 
and  the  fundamental  truths  supposed  to  arise 
from  it,  upon  the  credit  and  authority  of  the 
great  corporation  of  physicists,  with  Faraday, 
Helmholtz,  Mayer,  and  others  at  their  head. 
But  it  will  be  seen  that  we  are  by  no  means 
bound  on  this  account  to  accept  the  conclusions 
which  sceptical  materialists  draw  from  it.  On 
the  contrary,  if  we  accept  the  Indestructible- 
ness  of  Force  and  Energy,  its  Persistence, 
Conservation,  Correlation,  or  Equivalence,  we 
should  build  upon  these  dogmas  certain  con- 
clusions opposite  to  those  of  most  of  the  ma- 


352  THE  DISSIPATION  OF  ENERGY. 

terialists,  eind  should  endeavour  to  show  that 
theirconclusions  are  not  necessaryconsequences 
flowing  from  the  admission  of  the  truths  of 
the  physical  doctrine.  Let  us  then  accept  the 
Conservation  of  Energy  as  it  is  generally 
accepted,  and  also  the  Transformation  of 
Energy;  but  not  all  the  inferences  derived 
from  them,  nor  these  doctrines  themselves  as 
containing  the  whole  truth.  As  a  complemen- 
tary doctrine  I  think  we  must  consider  Sir  Wil- 
liam Thomson's  theory  of  the  Dissipation  of 
Energy ;  and  here  the  observation  of  Professor 
P.  G.  Tait,  the  President  of  the  Section  for 
Mathematical  and  Physical  Science,  at  the  last 
meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  (i87i),maybe  appro- 
priately introduced  : 

*'  The  Dissipation  of  Energy  is  by  no  means 
well  known,  and  many  of  the  results  of  its 
legitimate  application  have  been  received  with 
doubt,  sometimes  even  with  attempted  ridicule, 
yet  it  appears  to  be  at  the  present  moment  by 
far  the  most  promising  and  fertile  portion  of 
Natural  Philosophy;  having  obvious  applica- 
tions, of  which  as  yet  only  a  small  per  centage 
appear  to  have  been  made.  Some  indeed  were 
made  before  the   enunciation  of  the  principles, 


THE  DISSIPATION  OF  ENERGY.  353 


and  have  since  been  recognized  as  instances  of 
it.  Of  such  we .  have  good  examples  in 
Fourier's  great  work  on  Heat-conduction,  in 
the  optical  theorem  that  an  image  can  never  be 
brighter  than  the  object;  in  Gauss's  mode  of 
investigating  electrical  distribution,  and  in 
some  of  Thomson's  theorems  as  to  the  energy 
of  an  electro-magnetic  held.  But  its  discoverer 
has,  so  far  as  I  know,  as  yet  confined  himself 
in  its  explicit  application  to  questions  of  Heat- 
conduction  and  Restoration  of  Energy,  Geo- 
logical Time,  the  Earth's  Rotation,  and  such 
like.  But  there  can  be  little  question  that  the 
principle  contains  implicitly  the  whole  theory 
of  Thermo-Electricity,  of  Chemical  Combina- 
tion, of  Allotropy,  of  Fluorescence,  etc.,  and 
perhaps  even  of  matters  of  a  higher  order  than 
common  Physics  and  Chemistry.  In  Astro- 
nomy it  leads  us  to  the  grand  question  of  the 
age,  or  perhaps  more  correctly,  the  phase  of  life 
of  a  star  or  nebula,  shows  us  the  material  of 
potential  suns,  other  suns  in  the  process  of 
formation,  in  vigorous  youth,  and  in  every  stage 
of  slowly  protracted  decay.  It  leads  us  to  look 
to  each  planet  and  satellite  as  having  been  at 
one  time  a  tiny  sun,  a  member  of  some  binary 
or  multiple  group,  and  even  now  (when  almost 


354  THE  DISSIPATION  OF  ENERGY. 

deprived  at  least  at  its  surface,  of  its  original 
energy)  presenting  an  endless  variety  of  sub- 
jects for  the  application  of  its  method.  It  leads 
us  forward  in  thought  to  the  far  distant  time 
when  the  materials  of  the  present  stellar 
system  shall  have  lost  all  but  their  mutual 
potential  energy,  but  shall  in  virtue  of  it  form 
the  material  of  future  larger  suns,  with  their 
attendant  planets.  Finally,  as  it  alone  is  able 
to  lead  us,  by  sure  steps  of  deductive  reasoning, 
to  the  necessary  future  of  the  Universe — neces- 
sary, that  is,  if  physical  laws  for  ever  remain 
unchanged — so  it  enables  us  to  say  that  the 
present  order  of  things  has  7iot  been  evolved 
through  infinite  past  time  by  the  agency  of  laws 
now  at  work — but  must  have  had  a  distinctive 
beginning,  a  state  beyond  which  we  are  totally 
unable  to  penetrate,  a  state,  in  fact,  which  must 
have  been  produced  by  other  than  the  now 
acting  causes.  Thus,  also,  in  Physiology,  it 
may  ere  long  lead  to  results  of  a  much  higher 
novelty  and  interest  than  those  yet  obtained, 
immensely  valuable  though  they  certainly  are."* 

*  Sir  William  Thomson  informs  me  that  he  treats  this  sub- 
ject in  the  yet  unpublished  Rede  Lecture  of  1866.  Sir  William 
adds  that  "Dissipation  of  energy  seems  to  him  strongly  against 
the  atheistic  theory  of  evolution,  but  not  against,  if  anything 
rather  for,  evolution."  (Letter  to  the  author,  26th  January,  1872.) 


THE  PRESENT  MATERIALISM. 


XV. 

THE  PRESENT  MATERIALISM. 

^"^  WITHOUT  attempting  to  discuss  at  length 
^  ^  the  vexed  and  probably  insoluble  meta- 
physical problems  which  are  associated  with 
Matter,  some  observations  on  the  principles,  cha- 
racter, extent,  and  assumptions  of  the  prevalent 
Materialism  of  our  day  may  be  here  offered. 

Materialism  assumes  the  existence  of  matter 
as  self  dependent,  and  as  endowed  with  certain 
inherent  and  inalienable  powers,  by  which  it 
evolves  inorganic  changes,  and  also  organic 
life  and  growth,  and  ultimately  sensation  and 
thought.  This  doctrine  plainly  issues  in  re- 
ducing man  to  a  living  machine,  affected 
exclusively  by  physical  impressions,  and  work- 
ing out  his  thoughts  by  means  of  the  circulations 
and  vibrations  felt  in  the  brain  and  his  nervous 
system. 

Every  material  molecule  is  affirmed  to  have 


356  SUMMARY  OF  PRINCIPLES. 

its  inherent  and  eternal  properties,  which  it 
carries  everywhere  with  it.  "A  particle  of 
iron,"  said  M.  Dubois  Reymond,  "  is,  and 
remains  the  same,  whether  it  goes  through  the 
world  in  an  aerolite,  or  rolls  like  thunder  in  a 
railway,  or  circulates  in  a  globule  of  blood 
through  the  temples  of  a  poet."  Thus  matter 
and  force  are  inseparable,  and  have  co-existed 
from  eternity.  There  is  an  associated  immor- 
tality of  matter  and  force.  Matter  never 
perishes  ;  the  same  quantity  of  matter  always 
has  existed,  does,  and  will  exist.  It  is  in 
unceasing  circulation,  during  which  each  ac- 
cidental combination  begins  and  ends.  Nothing 
comes  from  nothingness ;  nothing  returns  to 
nothingness.  From  these  principles  it  follows 
that  the  idea  of  a  creative  force,  of  an  absolute 
force,  distinct  from  matter,  creating  it  at  first, 
and  governing  it  afterwards  according  to  certain 
arbitrary  laws,  is  unphilosophical,  a  figment  of 
the  brain,  an  impossible  abstraction.  There  can 
be  no  such  being  as  the  Creating  and  Govern- 
ing God  of  Christianity. 

The  laws  of  matter  result  from  its  properties. 
They  are  the  necessary  relations  which  result 
from  the  nature  of  things,  and  they  are  eternal 
and  immutable.     The  laws  of  matter  or  nature 


SUMMARY  OF  PRINCIPLES.  357 

never  have  changed  and  never  can  change. 
If  the  laws  of  matter  changed,  such  a  change 
would  be  due  to  a  corresponding  one  in  the 
properties  of  matter,  or  because  it  assumed 
properties  contrary  to  its  essence,  which  is 
evidently  impossible,  and  contrary  to  the 
testimony  of  experience. 

The  active  forces  of  Nature  cannot  be  sepa- 
rated from  itself,  and  there  can  be  no  Design  in 
Nature,  no  occasion  for  the  operation  of  Final 
Causes.  Against  these  the  materialists  hurl 
their  sharpest  weapons  of  ridicule  and  reproach. 
They  scorn  every  conception  of  their  existence, 
and  denounce  them  as  unphilosophical :  for 
it  is  evident  that  if  we  admit  Design  and  Final 
Causes  as  the  regulating  and  all-pervading 
principles  of  the  universe,  we  at  the  same 
time  deny  and  destroy  Materialism.  Still  they 
cannot  always  exclude  the  idea  of  this  principle 
so  manifest  in  nature,  and  accordingly  even  M. 
Moleschott  himself  is  reported  to  have  said,  in 
an  introductory  address,  delivered  at  Turin, 
where  he  had  just  been  named  Professor : — 
"•  Do  not  believe  that  I  am  rash  enough,  or 
blind  enough  to  refuse  to  Nature  a  design  and 
an  end.  All  those  whose  ideas  I  share,  by  no 
means,  deny  the  r^koq  which  they  guess,  which 


358  SUMMARY  OF  ARGUMENTS. 

they  even  sometimes  perceive  in  Nature,  as 
Aristotle  did  before  them.  But  they  wish  to 
forewarn  the  investig-ator  against  the  maze  in 
which  his  researches  would  be  lost,  if  he  endea- 
voured to  guess,  instead  of  being  satisfied  w4th 
the  reruvi  cognoscere  causasy 

In  like  manner,  upon  Mr.  Darwin's  principles, 
things  are  not  intended  for  the  purposes  with 
which  the  majority  accredit  them.  They  think 
that  colours  were  designed  for  human  delight, 
but  their  opponents  point  to  the  number  of 
flowers  which  the  eye  of  man  has  never  be- 
held. Beauty  is  with  the  majority  an  intellectual 
pleasure  purposely  afforded,  with  Darwinian 
naturalists  it  is  a  mere  motive  to  and  result  of 
Sexual  Selection.  We  see  the  uses  of  several 
organs  in  our  own  bodies  and  the  bodies  of 
numerous  inferior  animals,  and  their  adaptation 
to  the  very  purposes  they  were  intended  to  serve ; 
while  to  Materialists  Comparative  Anatomy  dis- 
covers a  considerable  number  of  superfluous 
and  rudimentary  organs,  which  though  useful 
to  one  species  are  useless  to  others.  Our  oppo- 
nents point  out  useless  complications,  and  allege 
that  monstrosities  are  decisive  proofs  against 
final  causes.  Why  does  the  Creator,  they  ask, 
create  or  allow  a  monstrosity  .^       ''  The  Great 


DENIAL   OF  DESIGN  AND  DEITY.  359 

Architect,"  Whom  by  traditional  influence,  we 
are  taught  to  admire  and  worship,  builds,  they 
say,  even  worse  than  a  good  human  architect. 
He  builds  a  structure  defaced  by  defects  and  dis- 
tortions, yet  men  call  this  a  proof  of  design 
and  contrivance.  All  these  distortions  can  be 
accounted  for  by  Variation  and  Natural  Selec- 
tion and  by  transformation  of  species.  Parasites, 
diseases,  sickness,  and  the  manifold  continual 
evils  of  humanity  and  organic  beings  are  bad 
illustrations  of,  and  bad  compliments  to  benevo- 
lence ;  they  are  the  plainest  proofs  of  malevo- 
lence. If  there  be  a  Supreme  Power  of 
Benevolence,  whence  these  evils  ?  If  they  flow 
from  Malevolence,  then,  there  is  an  equally 
potent  Malevolent  Being. 

Such  is  a  condensation  of  the  arguments 
employed  by  modern  and  partly  by  older 
materialists,  which  might  be  severally  assigned 
to  authors  of  this  school.  They  are  here  put 
forth  without  disguise  or  softening,  in  the  most 
sententious  form. 

Man  has  a  high  and  spiritual  nature,  but 
with  materialists  this  is  an  evolutionary  product 
developed  with  the  body,  and  due  to  the  same, 
or  similar  material  factors  as  those  which  ef- 
fected inferior  transmutations. 


36o  SHADES  AND  DIFFERENCES. 

In  respect  of  the  origin  of  mind  and  thought 
there  are  different  shades  or  degrees  of  Mate- 
rialism. All  are  not  as  gross  materialists  as 
Moleschott  and  Biichner.  The  former  has 
announced  that '' Thought  is  a  movement  of 
matter,"  and  has  written  the  well-known  pithy- 
phrase,  ''Without  phosphorus,  no  thought." 
Other  Germans  explain  thought  as  the  resultant 
of  all  the  forces  united  in  the  brain,  and  though 
it  cannot  be  seen,  it  may  be  supposed  from  the 
appearances  which  do  present  themselves  to  be 
only  the  effect  of  nervous  electricity.  "  There 
is,"  says  one  of  these  writers,  ''the  same  rela- 
tion between  thought  and  the  electric  vibrations 
of  the  cerebral  fibres  as  between  colours  and  the 
vibration  of  the  ether." 

Some  less  decided  forms  of  Materialism 
regard  the  percipient  principle  in  man  as  of 
one  essence  with  his  body,  and  suggest  that  as 
by  the  senses  we  can  only  know  the  physical 
laws  of  Nature,  there  may  be  unseen  powers 
inherent  in  physical  objects,  and  that  what  we 
call  matter  may,  besides  the  physical  properties 
which  we  know  it  possesses,  contain  also,  in 
organized  forms,  the  power  of  thought  and 
feeling,  and  thereby  become  capable  oi 
spiritual  as  well  as  physical  action. 


MATTER  AND   THOUGHT.  361 


It  will  be  sufficient  in  these  pages  to  remind 
the  reader  that  these  dog-mas  of  Materialism  con- 
sist of  assumptions  incapable  of  proof,  and  are 
sometimes  directly  opposed  to  the  fundamental 
principles  of  mental  Science.  There  are  essential 
differences  between  the  laws  of  thought  and  the 
laws  of  matter ;  nor  can  the  physical  organism 
be  made  the  cause  as  well  as  the  seatoi  thought. 
It  is  abhorrent  to  all  our  conceptions  of  mind 
to  suppose  that  matter  can  so  act  upon  thought 
as  to  cause  it  to  think  what  in  its  highest 
exercises  it  can  think.  Poetry  and  art,  morals 
and  religions,  energies  of  will,  passion  and 
piety,  may  be  attributed  by  violent  effort  to 
the  action  of  matter  upon  thought,  but  by  the 
majority  of  thinking  men  ever  have  been,  and 
doubtless  will  be,  attributed  to  something  very 
different  in  principle  than  the  action  of  matter. 

The  persistence  with  which  thought  is  de- 
clared to  be  merely  a  function  of  the  brain,  has 
led  many  to  believe  in  its  truth,  and  there  is  a 
specious  simplicity  in  it,  and  the  arguments 
brought  to  support  it,  which  deceive  those  who 
do  not  perceive  that  the  words  are  but  a  cloak 
for  our  ignorance.  It  is  urged  that  wherever 
a  brain  is  observed,  there  we  observe  a  thinking 
being,    or  one   with  a   capacity  for  intellect; 


362       MATTER  AND  THOUGHT  DISTINCT. 

wherever  the  brain  is  absent,  thought  and  intel- 
lect are  absent.  Intellect  and  the  brain 
increase  and  decrease  in  the  same  ratio,  and 
therefore  the  cause  affecting  the  one  affects  the 
other. 

If  we  should  even  admit  that  the  brain  is  the 
condition  of  thought,  we  may  yet  at  the  same 
time  deny  that  it  is  the  cause.  There  may  be  a 
totally  distinct  cause  for  the  thought,  though  it 
be  always  found  to  accompany  the  brain.  Spirit- 
ualists have  also  frequently  pointed  to  the  unity 
of  thought,  and  to  personal  identity  as  defeating 
Materialism. 

The  contradiction  derived  from  Personal 
Identity  is  ver}-"  strong.  This  is  the  mysterious 
principle  which  cannot  be  defined,  but  which  is 
always  felt.  Every  man  feels  that  he  remains  the 
same  at  every  instant  of  the  duration  which 
constitutes  his  existence,  and  this  conscious- 
ness is  his  personal  identity.  "  Thought, 
memory,  and  responsibility,"  says  M.  Janet, 
"  are  the  three  leading  facts  which  manifest 
identity  with  the  greatest  clearness.  The 
simplest  fact  of  thought  proves  that  the  think 
ing  subject  remains  the  same  at  two  different 
mxoments."  Every  thought  is  successive,  cer- 
tainly as  to  reasoning.      In  .  a  demonstration  it 


PERSONAL  IDENTITY  AND  REASONING.     363 

is  the  same  mind  which  passes  through  every 
stage  of  it.  With  materialists,  therefore,  rests 
the  burden  of  reconciling  the  personal  identity 
of  the  mind  with  the  perpetual  mutability  of 
the  organized  body.  *'  Now  we  must  acknow- 
ledge, "  says  Paul  Janet,*  ''  that  materialists 
have  never  taken  much  trouble  to  solve  that 
problem,  and  Dr.  Biichner  does  not  even  allude 
to  it,  and  yet  it  is  not  clear  that  the  identical 
can  result  from  the  invariable,  or  the  one  from 
the  compound." 

We  may  also  mention  that  the  Unity  of 
Thought,  or  what  is  termed  in  philosophic  phrase 
— the  unity  of  the  ego  is,  unquestionable,  and  is 
attested  to  us  by  consciousness,  which  is  an 
important  fact.  This  precludes  the  supposition 
that  two  distinct  parts  can  have  a  common 
consciousness.  In  what  parts  of  the  complica- 
tive automaton  to  which  Materialism  reduces 
man,  can  the  consciousness  of  the  ego  dwell  ? 

Imagine  a  Darwinian  to  say,  "  Human  con- 
sciousness is  but  the  sum  total  of  the  minute 
and  imperfect  consciousnesses  experienced  by 
the  lower  animals.    Natural  Selection  has  com- 

*  "  The  Materialism  of  the  Present  Day,"  a  critique  on  Dr. 
Biichner's  system,  by  Paul  Janet,  translated  by  Gustave  Masson, 
1866.  The  author  effectively  carries  out  his  argument  against 
objections  which  he  himself  supplies. 


364     UNITY  AND  DISTINCT  CONSCIOUSNESS. 

bined  and  perfected  these  in  man."  We  reply 
that  no  conceivable  combination  of  all  the 
scattered  animal  consciousnesses  which  they 
may  be  said  to  possess,  can  compose  one  indi- 
vidual and  sole  consciousness.  "  Unity,"  says 
M.  Janet,  "  externally  perceived  may  be  the 
result  of  a  composition ;  but  it  cannot  be  so 
when  it  perceives  itself  from  within." 

It  is  certain  that  we  cannot  have  in  the 
whole  what  does  not  exist  in  any  of  the  parts ; 
therefore  all  matter  is  conscious,  or  conscious- 
ness is  wholly  distinct  from  matter.  *'  There  is 
no  escape  from  this  dilemma,"  says  Mr.  Wal- 
lace, **  either  all  matter  is  conscious,  or  con- 
sciousness is  something-  distinct  from  matter, 
and  in  the  latter  case,  its  presence  in  material 
forms  is  a  proof  of  the  existence  of  conscious 
beings,  outside  of,  and  independent  of  what  we 
term  matter." 

In  the  books  treating  of  mind  and  intellect, 
and  emotion  that  have  emanated  from  authors 
decidedly  of  this  school,  the  disposition  to  resolve 
psychological  into  material  phenomena  is  so 
strong  as  to  appear  irresistible.  "  The  in- 
fluence of  these  prepossessions,"  says  Dr. 
Noah  Porter,  *'  may  be  traced  in  the  works  of 
almost  every  writer  on  psychology,  if  not  in 


MATERIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  DELUDE.         365 

the  conclusions  which  he  reaches,  at  least  in  his 
modes  of  reasoning",  his  illustrations,  and  even 
in  that  very  language  which  he  naturally  em- 
ploys, and  by  which  he  is  unconsciously 
influenced."  One  reason  is  that  material 
phenomena  are  the  earliest  known  to  us.  The 
properties  and  powers  with  which  we  become 
acquainted  are  those  of  matter.  The  laws 
of  mechanism,  of  fluids,  of  light,  of  chemical 
union,  of  vegetable  and  animal  life,  are  the 
laws  which  we  first  study,  master,  and  apply. 
The  phenomena  of  matter  engage  the  atten- 
tion of  all  men,  their  lives,  their  trades,  their 
pursuits,  being  bound  up  with  these  laws  and 
obedient  to  them.  Therefore  material  associa- 
tion so  control  our  minds  that  they  even  direct 
our  thoughts,  and  almost  entirely  govern  our 
conceptions. 

Dr.  Porter  has  clearly  pointed  out  in  detail 
the  almost  unconquerable  influence  of  material- 
istic impressions,  and  our  misgivings  when  we 
are  confronted  with  new  and  strange  objects 
in  psychological  studies.  He  clearly  shows  that 
though  the  states  of  the  soul  have  been  the 
nearest  to  our  experience  and  the  most  familiar, 
they  have  been  furthest  removed  from  our 
observation  and  our  study ;  so  that  we  ask,  are 


366  INFLUENCE    OF  MATERIAL  IMPRESSIONS. 

they  real,  actual,  substantial  ?  If  actual  phe- 
nomena, are  they  distinct  and  definite  ?  To 
what  substance  do  they  pertain  ?  The  readiest 
answer  is — To  matter,  perhaps  in  some  attenu- 
ated form.  The  soul's  functions  are  explained 
by  the  action  of  animal  spirits,  or  by  chemical 
and  electrical  changes  in  the  nervous  sub- 
stance. Perception  is  explained  by  impressions 
on  the  eye  and  ear,  which  impressions  are 
referred  to  motions  in  a  vibrating  fluid  without, 
which  in  turn  are  responded  to  by  motions 
aroused  in  a  vibrating  agent  within.  Memory 
and  association  are  explained  by  the  mutual 
attractions  or  repulsions  of  ideas  similar  to 
those  to  which  the  particles  of  matter  are 
subjected  by  cohesion  or  electricity.  General- 
ization and  judgment,  induction  and  reasoning, 
are  resolved  by  the  frequent  and  often  repeated 
deposits  of  impressions,  that  have  afiinity  for 
each  other,  and  are  then  transformed  with 
general  conceptions  and  relations.  It  is  not 
denied  that  many  of  the  facts  and  phenomena 
which  these  cerebral  psychologists  recognize 
are  true  and  important  in  respect  of  the  rela- 
tions which  the  soul  holds  to  the  body,  and  that 
most  of  them  exemplify  the  conditions  of  the 
purely  psychical   activities ;     but  there   is    no 


DR.  PORTER'S  EXPLANATION.  367 

evidence  that  they  produce  the  phenomena 
observed,  nor  do  they  at  all  explain  the 
original  capacity  to  produce  them.  This  has 
been  insisted  upon  by  opponents  of  Material- 
ism, and  as  Dr.  Porter  forcibly  contends,  these 
are  only  the  invariable  antecedents,  or  essential 
conditions  of  certain  phenomena  so  long  as  the 
agent  performing  them  acts  also  with  those 
which  are  purely  corporeal  or  vital.  They  do 
not  appear  among  the  constituent  elements  of 
any  psychical  state  or  act ;  they  cannot  be 
found  in  them  by  analysis.  "These  cerebral 
conditions  might  be  supposed  to  exist  without 
the  occurrence  of  any  of  the  phenomena  in 
question,  without  perception,  memory,  or 
reasoning.  The  nervous  system  might  perform 
any  one  of  its  functions  without  a  single 
pS3^chical  result.  Its  direct  and  reflex  action 
might  occur  in  every  possible  form;  frequent 
repetition  might  increase  the  flow  of  nervous 
energy  in  certain  well-worn  paths,  and  the  parts 
excited  might  grow  in  size  and  strength  ;  new 
combination  of  nerve  cells  might  secure  growth 
to  the  brain,  both  in  mass  and  complexity, 
w^ithout  the  occurrence  of  a  single  act  of  per- 
ception, memory,  reasoning,  or  mental  associa- 
tion, or  v/itnout  any  kind  of  psychical  growth 


368        SEDUCTIVENESS  OF  MATERIALISM. 


or  mental  development — in  short,  without  the 
occurrence  of  a  single  one  of  the  phenomena 
which  these  causes  are  supposed  to  explain, 
and  of  which  they  are  supposed  to  be  the 
scientific  equivalents."* 

It  is  manifest,  then,  that  Materialism  is  a 
seductive  and  specious  system,  with  many  at- 
tractions and  many  arguments  in  its  favour, 
and  in  one  form  or  another  it  will  probably  al- 
ways find  believers  and  advocates.  It  presents 
itself  to  men  with  the  pretension  of  being 
entirely  experimental,  and  as  purged  from  meta- 
physical hypothesis.  It  professes  to  hold  as 
suspected  every  speculative  conception  which  is 
not  immediately  suggested  as  a  direct  result, 
of  observation.  It  vaunts  itself  as  the  only 
system  which  accords  with  positive  science,  and 
as  its  most  direct  and  exact  application. 

In  these  respects  it  is  contrasted  with  Pan- 
theism, with  Dualism,  and  all  that  desires  to  be 
imaginary  and  fanciful.  It  in  effect  says. 
Here  is  Matter.  We  do  not  know  what  it 
really  is,  and  offer  no  analysis  of  it;  we  only  say 
that  we  know  nothing  else.  Man  can  only 
reason  upon  what  surrounds  him.  If  there  be 
anythingbeside,  man  does  not  see  it,  andean  not 

♦  "  The  Human  Intellect." 


SEDUCTIVENESS  OF  MATERIALISM.        369 


know  it.  All  reasoning  upon  the  unknown 
and  imaginary  must  be  unscientific  ;  a  thousand 
theories  raised  upon  the  unknown  establish 
no  truth.  As  they  can  have  no  logical  basis, 
any  one  of  them  is  as  good  as  another.  We 
do  not  contend  with  speculations,  for  the  con- 
test is  absolutely  useless.  We  build  upon  the 
known  and  the  visible. 

You  perhaps  found  certain  objections  upon 
the  nature  of  Matter  and  its  distinctness  from 
Spirit ;  you  say  with  apparent  truth.  Matter  is 
an  entity  or  thing  occupying  space,  different  in 
essence  from  Spirit,  and  having  a  self-depend- 
ent existence.  It  is  really  the  substratum  of  all 
the  qualities  observed  in  physical  objects  ;  a 
substratum  which  would  remain  as  the  only 
substantial  thing  if  all  the  qualities  were  re- 
moved. In  contrast  to  and  distinct  from  this 
substratum,  there  exists  a  spiritual  substance 
which  underlies  all  spiritual  existence  and  the 
spiritual  world. 

This  may  possibly  be  a  fair  definition  of 
Matter,  rejoins  the  Materialist,  but  I  prefer 
that  of  Mr.  Mill,  that  it  is  a  permanent  pos- 
sibility of  Sensation.  Beyond  this  no  one  can 
securely  advance.  The  following  explanation 
of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  will  at   least   satisfy 

24 


370        MIND  AND  MATTER  UNKNOWABLE. 

Materialists:  *'the  concept  we  form  to  ourselves 
of  Matter  is,  the  symbol  of  some  form  of  power 
absolutely,  and  power  unknown  to  us ;  and  a 
symbol  which  we  cannot  suppose  to  be  like  to 
the  reality  mentioned,  without  involving"  our- 
selves in  contradiction."  Mr.  Spencer  pro- 
ceeds to  affirm  that  Matter  and  Motion,  as  we 
think  them,  are  but  symbolic  of  unknowable 
forms  of  existence.  Mind  also  is  unknowable, 
and  the  simplest  form  under  which  we  can  think 
of  its  substance,  is  but  a  symbol  of  something 
that  never  can  be  rendered  into  thought. 
**  Mind,  as  known  to  the  possessor  of  it,  is  a 
circumscribed  aggregate  of  activities  ;  and  the 
cohesion  of  these  activities  one  with  another 
throughout  the  aggregate,  compels  the  postu- 
lation  of  a  something  of  which  they  are  the 
activities."* 

According  to  this  philosophy,  the  very 
grounds  of  safe  reasoning  are  cut  from  under  us, 
for  God  is  absolutely  and  for  ever  unknowable, 
and  Matter  and  Mind  are  absolutely  and  for  ever 
unknowable  to  us.  Hence  we  can  never  know 
that  we  reason  rightly,  for  all  our  conclusions 
are  but  the  effects  of  the  exercise  of  "a  cir- 
cumscribed   aggregate    of     activities."      Be- 

♦  *' Psychology."     Second  Edition,  p.  159. 


FUTILITY  OF  ARGUMENTS,  371 

_ — — __ ^^ — 

hind  these  there  may  be  a  something  which 
causes  their  cohesion,  but  that  something-  is  ab- 
solutely and  for  ever  unknowable.  The  world, 
according  to  another  speculator,  is  one  both 
as  to  matter  and  mind,  but  yet  it  presents  two 
aspects  to  us,  in  one  of  which  it  is  entirely 
Mind,  in  the  other  entirely  Matter. 

To  argue  with  the  propounders  of  such  pro- 
positions, for  any  ultimate  truth,  is  to  beat  the 
air ;  at  every  point  they  can  elude  your  grasp. 
Do  you  charge  them  with  Materialism  ?  How 
can  you  bring  this  charge  when  the  nature 
of -Matter  cannot  be  known?  Do  you  desire 
a  distinct  definition  of  Mind  ?  They  affirm 
in  reply — It  cannot  be  known.  It  is  another 
aspect  of  Matter.  The  terms  of  the  pheno- 
mena of  Matter  may  be  translated  into  terms 
of  the  phenomena  of  Mind ;  and  those  who 
object  so  strongly  to  Materialism  are  fighting 
against  a  shadow,  against  a  figment  of  their 
own  brains,  not  understanding  our  philosophy, 
which  at  all  points  is  invulnerable. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  sufficient  to  accept 
the  opinion  which  prevails  amongst  the  ma- 
jority of  philosophers,  that  the  world  is  pro- 
duced by  two  independent  factors.  Mind  and 
Matter;   which,  however  conceived  and  repre- 


372  NO  PLACE  FOR  FREE    WILL, 

sented,  are  always  separate  and  independent. 
These  either  actually  are  present,  or  are  in- 
ferred to  be  present  immediately  to  conscious- 
ness, in  every  instance,  of  external  perception. 
If  we  relinquish  this  opinion  we  may  deduce 
with  the  metaphysical  ontologists,  every  thing 
from  Mind,  or  with  the  empirical  ontologists, 
deduce  everyhing  from  Matter. 

There  is  one  thing  which  remains  to  be  ac- 
counted for,  if  it  be  not  denied  by  Materialism, 
and  that  is  Free-will ;  for  if  there  be  nothing  in 
the  world  except  Matter,  free-will  cannot  exist 
in  man,  and  there  can  be  no  choice.  Here  the 
arguments  of  Materialistic  Physicists  certainly 
appear  to  become  mutually  destructive;  for 
if  all  nature  be  under  the  rigid  rule  of  physi- 
cal laws,  they  exclude  human  free-will,  that 
being  by  supposition  a  mere  evolution  of  mat- 
ter, a  result  of  certain  chemical  changes  in- 
duced in  matter.  But  can  free-will  be  a 
product  of  material  evolution,  and  man  be  the 
same,  when  the  will  governs  man  and  governs 
matter?  It  is  a  power  which  influences  material 
particles,  and  causes  them  to  move  and  take 
up  a  new  position :  how  then  can  it  possibly  be 
evolved  by  the  movement  of  these  particles? 

The  only  conceivable   method   of  escaping 


IJNVOLVES  CONTRADICTIONS.  373 

this  dilemma  is  to  deny  the  existence  of  free- 
will, and  inclusively  of  responsibility,  all  hig-h 
motives  to  moral  action,  and  finally  all  the 
higher  principles  of  religion.  The  highest  thing 
then  left  to  us  is  *^  a  circumscribed  aggregate 
of  activities,"  and  that,  too,  is  absolutely  and 
perpetually  unknowable ;  while  we  must  ever 
remain  ignorant  whether  in  the  postulated 
cohesive  something,  of  which  our  mental  ex- 
ercises are  the  activities,  there  be  any  free-will. 
There  seems  in  this  philosophy  no  satisfaction, 
no  soundness,  no  reality.  The  universe  is,  ac- 
cording to  it,  nothing  higher  than  a  coherent 
aggregate  of  necessary  activities ! 


374  IMMATERTALISM  OR  IDEALISM. 


XVI. 

IMMATERIALISM  OR  IDEALISM. 

T^  ROM  such  coherent  or  incoherent  aggre- 
■^  gate,  the  perplexed  reader  may  be 
glad  to  take  refuge  in  an  entirely  oppo- 
site philosophical  system,  if  such  there  be. 
At  the  opposite  pole  to  Materialism  we  find 
Idealism  or  Immaterialism ;  an  hypothesis 
which  delivers  us  from  difficulties  of  one 
kind  by  landing  us  amidst  difficulties  of  another. 
Nevertheless  Idealism  is  a  favourite  hypothesis 
with  several  men  of  mark  now  living,  and  there 
is  reason  to  expect  that  during  several  years  to 
come  it  will  gain  acceptance.  Probably 
thinkers  of  various  orders  will  feel  disposed  to 
adopt  it  as  a  harbour  of  refuge  from  the  storms 
of  fierce  controversy  which  now  rage  around 
us.  Unquestionably  it  is  a  ready  method  of 
escaping   theological  difficulties,   if  it  can   be 


PREDECESSORS  OF  BERKELEY.  375 

relied  upon  as  sound.  Unhappily  the  facility 
of  escaping  from  difficulties  is  apt  to  prejudice 
us  in  favour  of  a  system  which  has  too  many  of 
its  own. 

This  hypothesis  is  generally  associated  with 
Bishop  Berkeley,  whose  name  and  character 
are  well  known,  and  of  whom  Pope  sang  : — 

"  To  Berkeley  every  virtue  under  heaven." 

The  works  of  Berkeley  have  been  recently 
reprinted,  and  the  late  criticisms  offered  upon 
them  seem  to  intimate  that  a  highly  ap- 
preciative value  of  his  writings  and  his  theory 
exists  amongst  many  thoughtful  readers.  The 
hypothesis  however  is  by  no  means  exclusively 
attributable  to  Berkeley — for  in  many  writers 
long  antecedent  to  Berkeley,  we  trace  a  dispo- 
sition to  discountenance  the  idea  of  the  actuality 
of  an  external  world  of  matter.  In  the  schools  of 
the  middle  ages,  as  Sir  William  Hamilton  notes, 
''  the  arguments  in  favour  of  Idealism  were  fully 
understood;  and  they  would  certainly  have  ob- 
tained numerous  partisans,  had  it  not  been  seen 
that  such  a  philosophical  opinion  involved  a 
logical  heresy  touching  the  eucharist.  This 
was  even  recognized  by  St.  Augustine.  Des- 
cartes  could   not  with  his  doctrine    of  ideas 


376  LOCKE  AND   COLLIER. 

regard  the  reality  of  the  material  world  in  a 
friendly  manner,  and  in  and  after  his  time  it 
was  found  difficult  to  reconcile  certain  doctrines 
with  the  reality  of  matter.  Reid  observes  "it 
appears,  therefore,  that  every  particular  Mr. 
Locke  has  hinted  with  regard  to  that  system 
which  he  had  in  his  mind,  but  thought  it 
prudent  to  suppress,  tallies  exactly  with  the 
system  of  Berkeley.  If  we  add  to  this  that 
Berkeley's  system  follows  from  that  of  Mr. 
Locke  by  very  obvious  consequence,  it  seems 
reasonable  to  conjecture  from  the  passage  now 
quoted  that  he  was  not  unaware  of  that  con- 
sequence, but  left  it  to  those  who  should  come 
after  him  to  carry  his  principles  their  full  length, 
when  they  should  by  time  be  better  established 
and  able  to  bear  the  shock  of  their  opposition 
to  vulo^ar  notions."  * 

That  this  theory  was  entertained  by  others 
besides  Berkeley  is  proved  by  the  publication 
in  17 13  of  a  singular  tractate  now  extremely 
rare,  entitled  "  Clavis  Uniz'crsa/is;''  or  a  New 
Inquiry  after  Truth  :  being  a  Demonstration 
of  the  Non-Existence,  or  Impossibility  of  an 
External  World.  By  Arthur  Collier,  Rector 
of   Langford   Magna,    near   Sarum."      Collier 

*  Hamilton's  Edition  of  Reid  ;  "Intellectual  Powers,"  p.  287. 


COLLIER   ON  IMMATERIALISM.  2>77 

pursue  the  inquiry  very  closely  in  arguments 
substantially  the  same  as  those  of  Berkeley; 
but  with  a  displeasing-  style.  He  meets  several 
objections,  and  one  of  the  first  of  them  thus  : — 

**  Objection  i.  Does  not  the  Scripture  assure 
us  of  the  existence  of  an  external  world  ? 

Answer  i.  Not  that  I  know  of.  If  it  does, 
you  will  do  well  to  name  the  text  to  me 
wherein  this  is  revealed  to  us  : — otherwise  I 
have  no  way  to  answer  this  objection  but  that 
of  taking  into  consideration  every  sentence  in 
the  whole  Bible,  which  I  am  sure  you  will 
believe  is  more  than  I  need  do. 

2.  To  do  this  objection  all  the  right  I  can, 
I  will  suppose  a  passage  or  two  in  the  word  of 
God,  and  I  should  think,  if  such  a  one  is  any 
where  to  be  found,  it  will  be  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis,  where  Moses  speaks  of  the  Creation 
of  the  Material  world.  Here  it  is  said  that, 
*'  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven 
and  the  earth,"  and  also  that  all  material  things 
were  made  some  days  before  the  first  man, 
and  so  cannot  be  said  to  exist  only  relatively 
in  the  mind  of  man.     To  this  I  answer — 

3.  This  objection  from  scripture  is  taken 
from  Monsieur  Malebranche,  and  is  his  last 
resort   on   which   to   found   the   being   of  an 


378  COLLIER    ON  IMMATERLiLISM. 

external  world.  Here  then  my  answer  to  this 
author  is  that  the  tendency  of  this  passage  of 
Scripture  is  not  to  prove  the  being-  of  an 
external  (supposed  to  be  an)  invisible  world, 
but  the  external  being  or  existence  of  the 
visible  world.  For  it  is  here  supposed  that 
the  visible  world  existed  before  the  first  man 
saw  it. 

4.  It  seems  to  me  there  is  nothing  in  this 
passage  which  affirms  the  visible  world  to  be 
external ;  and  my  reason  for  this  is,  because 
there  is  nothing  in  it  but  what  is  very  con- 
sistent with  believing  the  visible  world  is  not 
external."  Collier  then  carries  out  this  line  of 
argument,  and  speaks  of  the  importance  which 
seme  might  attach  to  the  ''  little  syllable  The, 
which  is  prefixed  in  the  text  to  the  words  Heaven 
and  Earthy  He  adds,  *' This  is  a  slender 
thread  indeed  on  which  to  hang  the  whole 
subject  of  an  Universe." 

In  concluding  his  tractate,  the  author  refers 
to  the  *'Use  and  Consequences  of  the  Foregoing 
Treatise,"  and  observes  ''  First,  I  know  not  why 
my  reader  should  not  take  my  word  (I  mean 
till  he  himself  has  made  inquiry),  when  I  assure 
him  that  the  consequences  of  this  position  are 
exceeding  many  in  number.     If  this  will  pass, 


REID  ON  IMMATERIALISM.  379 

I  again  assure  him  that  I  have  found  by  more 
than  a  ten  years'  experience,  or  appHcation  of 
it  to  diverse  purposes,  that  this  is  one  of  the 
most  fruitful  principles  that  I  have  ever  met 
with,  even  of  general  and  universal  influence 
in  the  field  of  knowledge  :  so  that  if  it  be  true, 
as  is  here  supposed,  it  will  open  the  way  to  ten 
thousand  other  truths,  and  also  discover  as 
many  things  to  be  errors,  which  have  hitherto 
passed  for  true." 

With  respect  to  certain  aspects  of  this  theory, 
whether  it  be  true  or  false,  it  does  not  exclude 
the  government  of  the  Almighty,  but  as  its 
adherents  consider,  rather  confirms  it.  *'  The 
evidence"  says  Reid,  ''of  an  all-governing 
mind,  so  far  from  being  weakened,  seems  to 
appear  even  in  a  more  striking  light  upon 
this  hypothesis  than  upon  the  common  one. 
The  powers  which  inanimate  matter  is  supposed 
to  possess,  have  always  been  the  stronghold 
of  Atheists,  to  which  they  have  recourse  in 
defence  of  their  system.  This  fortress  of 
Atheism  must  be  most  effectually  overturned, 
if  there  is  no  such  thing  as  matter  in  the 
universe.  In  all  this  the  Bishop  (Berkeley) 
reasons  justly  and  acutely.  But  there  is  one 
uncomfortable  consequence  of  his  system  which 


38o  RE  ID   ON  I  MM  A  TERIALISM. 

he  seems  not  to  have  attended  to,  and  from  which 
it  will  be  found  difficult,  if  at  all  possible,  to 
guard  it. 

The  consequence  I  mean  is  this  :  that 
althoucfh  it  leaves  us  sufficient  evidence  of  a 
supreme  intelligent  mind,  it  seems  to  take  away 
all  the  evidence  we  have  of  other  intelligent 
beings  like  ourselves.  What  I  call  a  father,  a 
brother,  or  a  friend,  is  only  a  parcel  of  ideas  in 
my  own  mind,  and  being  ideas  in  my  mind, 
they  cannot  possibly  have  that  relation  to 
another  mind  which  they  have  to  mine,  any 
more  than  the  pain  felt  by  me  can  be  the  indi- 
vidual pain  felt  by  another.  I  can  find  no 
principle  in  Berkeley's  system  which  affords 
me  even  probable  ground  to  conclude  that  there 
are  other  intelligent  beings  like  myself  in  the 
relations  of  father,  brother,  friend  or  fellow- 
citizen.  I  am  left  alive  as  the  only  creature 
of  God  in  the  universe,  in  that  forlorn  state 
of  egoism,  into  which  it  is  said  some  of  the 
disciples  of  Descartes  were  brought  by  his 
philosophy."* 

Principally  to  evade  the  force  of  all  argu- 
ments for  Materialism,  has  the  Idealism  or  Im- 
materialism    been    more   or    less    confidently 

*  Hamilton's  Rcid  ;  "  Intellectual  Powers,"  p.  285. 


ARGUMENTS   OF  AN  IMMATERIALIST.     381 

urged.  Originating-  far  centuries  ago  the  dreams 
of  sages  and  the  creeds  of  idolaters,  it  reappears 
in  the  system  of  Berkeley,  and  not  unfrequently 
in  the  modified  propositions  of  more  recent 
philosophers.  It  has  perhaps  a  wider  accep- 
tance at  the  present  day  than  is  commonly 
suspected,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  even  in  1 844 
Faraday  avowed  his  belief  in  the  immateriality 
of  physical  objects,  a  conclusion  at  which  he 
arrived  while  reflecting  on  the  conduction  and 
isolation  of  electricity.* 

The  Immaterialist  asks  the  Materialist,  ^*  What 
is  the  nature  of  this  Matter  in  which  you 
believe?"  and  the  Materialist  must  answer, 
*'I  only  know  that  it  is  something  hard  and 
insensible,  having  certain  properties  and  par- 
ticles performing  certain  work ;  but  what  its 
abstract  and  essential  nature  is,  I  cannot  tell." 
"But,"  says  the  Immaterialist,  ''can  this  un- 
known entity  possess  the  power  of  executing  all 
the  operations  of  Nature,  and  producing  all  the 
organic  beings  in  Nature  ?  Beyond  all,  can  it 
evolve  mind  and  thought  from  the  action  of  the 
brain,  as  its  natural  function  ?  "  The  Materialist 
replies  that  matter  does  all  this,  and  that  .if  it 
does  not,  there  is  nothing  known  which  does. 

*  "Philosophical  Magazine,"  1844, 


382    PROPOSITIONS  OF  AN  IMMATERIALIST. 


Now,  says  the  Immaterialist,  I  present  these 
propositions*  for  your  consideration. 

1.  The  existence  of  matter  cannot  be  proved, 
we  never  see  it  perfect,  nor  can  we  form 
any  distinct  conception  of  it. 

2.  Physical  properties  we  imagine  to  consist 
of  matter  ;  but  their  active  properties  indicate 
the  possession  of  a  spiritual,  much  more  ra- 
tionally than  a  material  essence. 

3.  Reason  does  not  sanction  the  existence  of 
an  insensible,  unconscious,  unintelligent  entity, 
possessing  active  powers  ;  and  that  such  an 
entity  should  have  the  ability  to  conduct  the 
complex  arrangements  of  the  physical  world, 
appears  to  be  a  supposition  so  contradictory 
and  absurd,  that  few  persons  will  be  found 
willingly  to  identify  themselves  with  it.  For  if 
matter  does  any  ihing^  it  does  every  thing;  and  no 
]\Iaterialist  will  suppose  or  suggest  a  point 
where  its  operations  cease. 

4.  Power,  when  we  reflect  closely  on  its 
nature  and  meaning,  presents  itself  to  us  as  an 
attribute  of  an  intelligent  Spiritual  Being,  and 
not  of  an  unconscious  inanimate  thing.     We 

*  See  ''  The  World  as  Dynamical  and  Immaterial,"  by  R.  S. 
Wyld,  1868,  p.  57,  from  which  book  the  above  propositions  are 
principally  condensed. 


PROPOSITIONS  OF  AN  IMMATERIALIST.     383 

can  never  conceive  of  power  as  an  attribute  of 
an  unconscious  entity,  such  as  we  suppose  the 
all-pervading  ether  to  be.  And  when  we  see 
power  combined  with  intelligence,  working  out 
useful  ends,  we  can  have  no  hesitation  in  attri- 
buting it  to  an  intelligent,  self-conscious, 
spiritual  cause. 

5.  Physical  objects  acting  in  the  mass,  and 
physical  atoms  acting  chemically,  act  externally 
to  themselves,  and  therefore,  through  the  medium 
of  an  immaterial  copula.  Several  phenomena 
appear  to  be  quite  incompatible  with  the  belief 
in  matter  as  a  physical  entity. 

6.  If  we  assume  that  the  powers  of  Nature  are 
associated  with  matter,  and  sustained  in  it  by 
Deity,  we  reduce  ourselves  to  a  belief  in  the 
existence  everywhere  throughout  Nature  of  a 
thing  which  has  no  power  of  its  own,  and  is 
therefore  superfluous,  and  we  involve  ourselves 
in  the  supposition  that  the  Deity  has  created  a 
thing  which  has  neither  power  nor  utility,  which, 
in  fact,  occupies  space,  while  it  does  nothing  in 
space. 

7.  It  is  admitted  by  all  philosophers  that  we 
never  acquire  any  direct  knowledge  of  matter, 
or  of  anything  as  a  thing  in  itself.  We  merely 
know  of  things  and    learn    to   describe  them 


384  APPLIED   TO    THEISM. 

by  their  activities.  Therefore  we  are  left  at 
liberty  to  select  an  adequate  cause  to  account 
for  the  powers  exhibited  in  external  nature, 
and  we  are  under  no  necessity  to  select  an 
insensible  and  evidently  inadequate  cause, 
which  matter  is,  even  by  the  showing  of  the 
Materialist. 

"  Seeing-,  then,"  says  Mr.  Wyld,  "  everywhere 
around  us  in  the  world,  marks  not  only  of  power 
but  of  wisdom,  of  design,  of  order,  of  beauty, 
the  combination  of  parts,  the  many  antecedents 
contributing  to  produce  the  definite  results,  we 
can   have    but    little    hesitation    in    discarding- 
matter  as  an  entirely  insufficient  cause  whereby 
to  account  for  all  this,  and  for  the  constant  and 
methodical  flux  of  physical  events,  and  we  can 
have  just  as  little  hesitation  in  coming  to  the 
conclusion  that   the  world   is   not  a  material 
entity  at  all,  but  an  ever  active  cause,  an  im- 
material and  spiritual  cause,  a  manifestation  of 
power  ever  working  in  connection  with  intelli- 
gence,  therefore   an    ever   present    intellig-ent 
cause  in   direct  operation.     The  Infinite  sub- 
jecting his  power  to  Finity,  and  manifesting 
himself  in  the  laws  of  time  and  space,  and  all 
those  other  laws  which  we  call  mechanical  or 
physical,  and  which  He  himself  has  appointed 


MODIFIED   IMMATERIALISM.  385 

as  the  conditions  of  this  physical  world."  .... 
*'  If  the  only  source  of  power  is  Deity,  then  in 
perception  we  are  brought  into  direct  contact 
and  connection  with  the  Deity." 

The  above  is  plainly  Berkeley's  theory  with 
some  modifications.  Berkeley's  idealism  would 
give  a  constant  contradiction  to  reason  and 
natural  belief,  but  this  view  admits  of  an  ex- 
ternal physical  world,  and  our  possession  of  an 
organic  bodily  frame.  Time  and  space,  too, 
are  in  this  view  attributes  with  which  the  Deity 
clothes  himself  in  arranging  the  physical  world, 
and  wherever  the  laws  of  the  physical  world 
extend,  there  the  mind,  through  the  senses,  is 
brought  into  contact  with  the  Deity.  Deity  is 
supposed  to  produce  in  the  mind  the  necessary 
sensation  which  we  interpret  as  caused  by  the 
external  object.  Though  there  may  be  no 
great  impropriety  in  calling  external  objects 
matter  in  common  language,  yet  when  we  wish 
to  give  a  rational  explanation  of  power,  we 
must  conclude  that  it,  together  with  the  world 
around,  is  the  issue  of  an  immaterial  and  spiritual 
nature.  Such  is  modified  Immaterialism  in  its 
favourable  aspects. 

As  to  that  world-embracing  medium  which  per- 
vades all  space,  that  subtlest  of  all  things  known 

25 


386    ,  THE  ALL-PERVADING  ETHER. 

to  US,  which  we  appropriately  term  Ether,  we 
can  only  refer  to  it  as  something  which  though 
known  to  exist,  is  definitively  unknown  to  us,  and 
is  beyond  our  experiments.  Yet,  as  Mr.  Wyld 
observes,  *'  Its  pressure  must  almost  exceed  the 
bounds  of  belief,"  and  he  illustrates  this  by  the 
following  notable  calculation  : 

*'The  velocity  of  the  propagation  of  vibra- 
tions in  any  elastic  medium  depends  on  the  rela- 
tion of  tension  which  the  medium  bears  to  the 
inertia  or  weight  of  the  molecules  of  which  the 
medium  consists.  The  greater  the  pressure  or 
tension  of  the  medium,  and  the  lighter  the 
molecules  composing  it,  the  greater  the  velocity 
of  the  vibrations  propagated  through  it. 

*'  The  velocity  of  sound  through  air  is  about 
iioo  feet  a  second.  The  velocity  of  light  is 
nearly  200,000  miles  in  the  same  brief  time. 
We  have  of  course  no  means  of  ascertaininof 
the  fact,  but  it  is  probable  that  the  molecules 
of  this  wonderful  medium  of  which  we  speak 
may  be  inconceivably  light.  Let  us  assume 
that  they  are  one-hundredth  part  the  Vv^eight  of 
a  molecule  of  air  :  on  this  supposition  the  pres- 
sure and  tension  of  the  ether  must  be  960,000 
times  the  pressure  of  our  atmosphere ;  and  if 
we  suppose  them  to  be  a  thousandth  part  the 


THE  ALL-PERVADING  ETHER.  387 

weight  of  a  molecule  of  air,  the  pressure  of  the 
ether  will  be  96,000  times  that  of  the  atmo- 
sphere; which,  let  it  be  remembered,  bears  with 
a  force  of  about  15  pounds  on  every  square  inch 
of  the  surface  of  the  earth  and  our  bodies.  As 
the  ether,  however,  penetrates  all  substances, 
it  does  not  affect  them  as  a  weight  or  pressure. 
It  is  only  by  the  movements  or  vibrations  that 
we  have  any  consciousness  of  its  existence,  as 
it  is  only  by  these  that  it  disturbs,  or  in  any 
way  affects  physical  bodies. 

*'  This  subtle  medium  penetrates  all  sub- 
stances, even  the  densest,  and  is,  in  fact,  the 
cushion  on  which  the  ultimate  atoms  of  all 
things  rest.  It  surrounds  every  atom,  and  by 
its  movements,  which  never  cease,  it  keeps 
them  in  constant  though  invisible  motion. 
The  mountains,  the  solid  earth,  and  everything 
on  its  surface  are  thus,  as  it  were,  alive  with 
constant  motion. 

*'  But  though  its  absolute  pressure  is  so  tre- 
mendous, yet  mark  how  Nature's  agents  work 
for  Nature's  ends.  This  vast  ethereal  ocean 
which,  when  in  any  part  it  is  lashed  into 
violent  action,  has  power  to  dissolve  the  most 
obdurate  materials,  metals,  rocks,  cities  with 
their  palaces  and  temples  yielding  before  it, 


388  THE   ALL-PERVADING  ETHER. 

and  becoming  reduced  to  ashes,  or  resolved 
into  their  original  elements.  This  same  medium 
whose  destructive  energy  is  so  great,  becomes 
in  its  ordinary  and  tamer  moods,  like  the  calm 
ocean  which  with  soft  and  musical  ripple  plays 
idly  with  straws  and  leaves.  .  In  these  its  gentler 
movements  it  appears — so  perfect  is  its  elas- 
ticity— as  if  it  were  mastered  even  by  the 
weakest  and  most  trifling  objects.  It  is  en- 
tangled by  a  cobweb  ;  and  in  furs,  and  flannels, 
and  feathers,  its  vibrations  become  lost  in 
endless  reflections,  and  with  difficulty  do  they 
extricate  themselves. 

*'  It  keeps  every  atom  in  constant  motion,  so 
that  one  may  pass  another  as  they  hurry  on 
under  the  directing  energy  of  the  living  Or- 
ganizer, to  be  built  each  into  its  proper  place ; 
without  it  motion  were  impossible,  and  the 
whole  earth,  organic  and  inorganic,  would 
become  sealed  up  in  the  close  lock  of  an  eternal 
stillness,  darkness,  and  death."* 

As  akin  to  this  subject,  some  original  views 
of  Professor  Challis  on  the  Fundamental  Ideas 
of  Matter  and  Force  may  here  be  appended  : — 

'*  All  Matter  consists  of  very  minute  atoms 
having  no  other  properties  than  constancy  of 

*  "The  World  Dynamical  and  Immaterial,"  etc.,  1868,  p.  ^"j. 


! 

IDEAS  OF  MATTER  AND  FORCE.  389 

form,  constancy  of  magnitude,  and  an  intrinsic 
inertia  which  is  always  the  same  for  matter  of 
the  same  magnitude. 

"All  atoms  are  supposed  to  bespherical.  No 
other  kind  of  force  is  recognized  than  that  of 
pressure.  The  resistance  of  the  atoms,  when 
pressed,  to  all  change  of  form  and  magnitude 
constitutes  a  physical  force  which  may  be  called 
atomic  reaction. 

**  All  other  physical  force  has  its  origin  int  he 
pressure  of  a  universally  diffused  elastic  fluid 
medium — the  so-called  Ether — which  pervades 
all  space,  and  fills  those  portions  of  space  in  the 
interiors  of  visible  and  tangible  substances  that 
are  not  occupied  by  their  proper  atoms. 

"•  This  ether,  when  undisturbed,  has  the  same 
density  and  elastic  force  throughout  its  extent, 
but  is  susceptible  of  variations  of  density. 
These  variations  are  accompanied  by  propor- 
tional variations  of  its  pressure. 

*'The  different  kinds  of  physical  forces  are 
pressures  of  the  ether  acting  under  different 
circumstances,  and  are  regulated  by  the  modes 
of  the  mutual  actions  of  the  parts  of  the 
fluid. 

**The  above  hypotheses  are  in  part  coinci- 
dent with    those   relating  to    the   qualities   of 


390  NEWTON'S  RULES. 

bodies  contained  in  Regula  III.,  prefixed  to  the 
third  book  of  Newton's  Principia\  and  all  have 
been  adopted  in  accordance  with  rules  of  philo- 
sophy laid  down  by  Newton."* 

*  "  Professor  Challis  on  the  Fundamental  Ideas  of  Matter  and 
Force  in  Theoretical  Physics."     Philosophical  Magazine,  1868 


LIFE  AND  PROTOPLASM. 


391 


XVIL 

LIFE,  PROTOPLASM,  AND    ^LTAL  FORCE. 

T  IFE  has  been  always  considered  a  special 
^-^  thoug-h  mysterious  endowment,  and  has 
hitherto  been  generally  regarded,  certainly  by 
the  majority  of  observers,  as  the  consequence 
of  the  direct  action  of  the  Creator.  All  our 
phraseology  connected  with  life  has  been  based 
upon  this  view,  and  if  we  were  compelled  to  sub- 
tract such  phraseology  from  every  book,  especi- 
ally our  Bible,  our  religious  language,  and  our 
common  conversation  must  suffer  a  very  great 
change,  and  what  amounts  to  a  remodelling 
must  take  place  in  them  all.  *'  We  are  all " 
says  a  reviewer  of  a  scientific  book,  "  more  or 
less  enslaved  by  words ;  but  it  is  the  proper 
business,  equally  of  religion  and  philosophy, 
to  throw  off  this  thraldom,  when  truth,  as  often 
happens,  is  fettered  or  distorted  by  it."  What 
then  would  be  the  revolution  in  our  language 


392  THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  LIFE, 

and  our  religious  forms,  if  we  were  to  elimi- 
nate all  those  words  or  phrases  in  them  which 
embody  the  idea  of  God  as  the  Giver  of  life, 
and  that  in  a  direct  and  immediate  sense.  *'  It 
may  turn  out"  says  another  critic,  *'that  the 
whole  phenomena  of  life  are  simply  functions 
of  matter;"  and  this  is  the  opinion  prevailing 
amongst  a  considerable  number  of  physiolo- 
gists and  biologists.  What  then  becomes  of 
our  Biblical  and  Religious  language  ? 

The  recent  animated  controversy  respecting 
the  *'  Physical  Basis  of  Life,"  particularly  in 
connection  with  Professor  Huxley's  notorious 
Essay  thus  entitled,  has  engaged  much  atten- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  reading  public  at  large, 
who  soon  perceived  what  a  revolution  in  their 
religion  and  speech  must  ensue  from  the  general 
acceptance  of  an  exclusively  physical  origin  of 
all  life.  Very  few  persons  were  qualified  by 
special  knowledge  of  the  subject  to  form  a 
deliberate  judgment  upon  the  hypothesis  put 
forward.  In  relation,  however,  to  the  essay  of 
Mr.  Huxley,  two  replies  have  been  printed 
which  may  be  referred  to  as  effective,  and  as  I 
think,  any  impartial  judge  would  admit,  sub- 
versive of  the  theory  of  the  physical  basis  of  life. 
These  replies  are  entitled,  the  one  ""  As  Regards 


THE  PHYSICAL  BASIS   OF  LIFE,  393 

Protoplasm  in  relation  to  Professor  Huxley's 
Essay,  &c."  By  James  Hutchinson  Stirling, 
L.L.D.  ;  and  the  other  "Protoplasm;  or  Life, 
Matter,  and  Mind."  By  Lionel  S.  Beale,  M.B. 
The  former  is  a  small  pamphlet,  and  the  latter 
a  small  book.  To  these  any  reader  desiring 
detailed  information  may  be  referred.  Here  I 
need  only  make  such  observations  as  are  suit- 
able to  the  limits  and  character  of  this  volume. 

The  main  points  of  this  controversy  turn  on 
observations  made  on  certain  objects  under 
the  microscope,  and  therefore  it  is  desirable 
to  state,  that  Dr.  Lionel  Beale,  whom  I  here 
cite  and  condense,  is  an  accomplished  micro- 
scopist;  and  that  of  his  aptitude  for  minute 
and  correct  observation,  or  of  his  long  practice 
with  a  good  instrument  of  high  powers,  there 
can  be  no  question. 

In  direct  contradiction  to  Mr.  Huxley's  view, 
Dr.  Beale  urges  that  the  several  distinct  kinds 
of  Protoplasm  ought  not  to  be  confounded,  and 
he  draws  a  decided  and  physically  impassable 
line  between  things  living  and  dead  matter.  He 
denies  emphatically  that  the  living  differs  from  the 
non-living  only  in  degree,  and  the  statement 
positively  made  by  certain  authorities  that  the 
non-living  passes  by  gradation  into  the  living. 


J94        LIVING  AND  NON-LIVING  MAILER. 

They  positively  affirm  that  between  the  living  and 
non-livino-  there  is  no  considerable  difference — 

o 

no  difference  except  in  the  rate  at  which  the 
]jhysical  and  chemical  changes  are  carried  on. 
He  as  positively  asserts  that  he  has  shown 
and  by  careful  observation  established,  that 
living  matter  can  be  plainly  distinguished  from 
dead  matter,  and  this  even  in  the  case  of  ex- 
tremely minute  particles  in  which  living  matter, 
and  matter  that  has  ceased  to  live,  and  matter 
that  is  about  to  live  are  associated  together 
within  a  very  small  area.  He,  therefore, 
names  living  matter  Bioplasm,  in  distinction 
from  non-living  matter,  or  Protoplasm. 

In  Bioplasm  or  living  matter,  wonderful 
changes  take  place  so  long  as  life  lasts,  which 
cannot  be  explained  by  physics  or  chemistry. 
At  any  time  it  can  be  examined,  for  it  is  to  be 
found  almost  everywhere,  and  its  principal 
phenomena  can  be  demonstrated  under  the 
microscope  with  a  high  power  (^  objective). 
There  is  not  a  living  being  which  does  not 
contain  Bioplasm,  and  whose  structure,  com- 
position, and  actions,  do  not  depend  upon  it. 
At  no  period  of  life,  in  health,  or  disease,  is 
there  any  portion  of  any  tissue  of  man's  body 
the  size  of  a  pin's  head  (with  the  single  excep- 


BIOPLASM  AND  PROTOPLASM.  395 

tion  of  the  teeth  in  adults  and  in  old  age), 
which  does  not  contain  some  of  the  living 
matter  or  Bioplasm  in  which  purely  vital 
phenomena  take  place.  Nor  is  there  any 
action  characteristic  of  living  beings  at  any 
period  of  their  existence  in  which  Bioplasm 
does  not  play  an  important  part.  At  the  earliest 
period  the  germ  is  composed  almost  entirely 
of  it,  and  from  the  original  bioplasmic  germ- 
mass  come  the  infinite  number  of  bioplasts 
which  subsequently  take  part  in  the  production 
of  the  several  tissues  and  organs. 

What  is  Protoplasm  ?  Dr.  Beale  states,  that 
this  term  is  now  applied  to  several  different 
kinds  of  matter,  and  to  substances  differing  from 
one  another  in  the  most  essential  particulars. 
It  was  thus  defined  some  few  years  ago.  "  The 
name  applied  by  Mohl  to  the  colourless  or 
yellowish  smooth,  or  granular  viscid  substance 
of  nitrogenous  constitution,  which  constitutes 
the  formative  substance  in  the  contents  of 
vegetable  cells,  in  the  condition  of  gelatinous 
strata,  reticulated  threads  and  nuclear  aggrega- 
tions, etc.  It  is  the  same  substance  as  that 
formerly  termed  by  the  Germans,  '  Schleim ' 
which  was  usually  translated  in  English  words 
by   '  mucus  '   or  *  mucilage.'     The  surface  of 


396  PROTOPLASM  DEFINED. 


the  mass  constituted  the  *  formative  proto- 
plasmic layer,'  which  was  supposed  to  take  part 
in  the  formation  of  the  cellulose  wall  of  the 
vegetable  cell.  This  was  regarded  by  Mohl  as 
a  structure  of  special  importance  distinct  from 
the  cell  contents,  and  it  was  named  by  him,  in 
1844,  the  "primordial  utricle."* 

The  diverse  applications  of  the  same  term  are 
of  little  value  to  the  general  reader,  for  whom 
it  is  sufficient  to  state,  that  on  the  physical 
basis  side,  the  word  is  assumed  to  mean  that  one 
kind  of  matter  which  is  affirmed  to  be  common 
to  all  living  beings,  and,  therefore,  to  form 
"the  physiological  basis,  or  matter  of  life." 
Mr.  Huxley's  present  conception  of  Protoplasm 
then  is  understood  to  be  that  of  living  matter, 
living  proteine,  or  perhaps  in  common  language 
— elementary  life-^tuff. 

Mr.  Huxley  is  charged  by  Dr.  Beale  with 
giving  the  same  name  to  matter  which  is  aliva 
to  matter  which  is  dead,  and  to  matter  which 
is  completely  changed  by  roasting  or  boiling. 
The  matter  of  sheep  or  mutton,  of  a  man,  a 
lobster,  an  egg,  is  said  to  be  the  same,  and  one 
may  be  transubstantiated  into  the  other.  How? 
it  is  replied  "  by  subtle  influences  "  and  "under 

*  Griffith  and  Hcnfrcy's  Micrographic  J:>ia\on3.Yy—Proloplasm. 


THEORY  OF  A    COMMON  PROTOPLASM,    397 

sundry  circumstances."  And  all  these  thing-s 
alive,  or  dead,  or  roasted,  are  according  to 
Mr.  Huxley  modes  of  Protoplasm.  He  would 
evolve  all  organic  life,  all  mind  and  intellect 
from  one  Protoplasm.  In  order  that  there 
shall  be  no  break  between  the  lowest  and  the 
highest  functions — those  of  the  fungus  and 
of  man — Mr.  Huxley  has  "  endeavoured  to 
prove  that  the  Protoplasm  of  the  lowest 
organs  is  *  essentially  identical '  with  and  most 
readily  converted  into  that  of  the  animal."  On 
this  alleged  reciprocal  convertibility  of  Pro- 
toplasm, he  would  found  an  inference  of  identity, 
and  further  derive  the  conclusion  that  the  func- 
tions of  the  highest  not  less  than  the  lowest 
animals  are  but  the  molecular  manifestations 
of  their  common  Protoplasm. 

In  his  most  recently  published  little  book,* 
Dr.  Beale  has  given  a  compendium  of  his  latest 
opinions  on  the  subject  and  has  illustrated  them 
by  several  plates  of  structure  which  confirm  his 
statements.  In  this  book,  though  more  at  large 
in  previous  publications.  Dr.  Beale  has  shown 
that  the  phenomena  of  living-  matter  differ 
decidedly  from  the  phenomena  of  non-living 
matter.     He  affirms  that  ''  notwithstanding-  all 

Life  Theories  :  their  Influence  upon  Religious  Thought,  1871. 


39S  DR.  BE  ALE   ON  LIVING  AND  NON-LIVING. 

that  has  been  asserted  over  and  over  again  to 
the  contrary,  it  has  been  proved  conclu- 
sively that  the  phenomena  of  the  simplest 
living  thing  are  essentially  different  from  those 
of  non-living  matter,  and  cannot  be  imitated, 
and  that  the  living  does  not  emanate  from  the 
non-living,  or  pass  into  it  by  gradations.  Life 
is  no  mere  sum  of  ordinary  forces,  nor  does 
vital  action  result  from  material  changes  alone. 
It  cannot  be  shown  that  the  matter  of  the 
world  and  its  material  forces  necessarily  give 
rise  to  the  development  of  life.  We  may, 
therefore,  still  regard  life  as  transcending  mere 
matter  and  its  forces,  and  as  a  distinct  gift  of 
an  all-wise  Omnipotence." 

It  would  be  out  of  character  to  add  any  de- 
tails here  upon  the  controversies  now  exist- 
ing about  Spontaneous  Generation,  and  the  va- 
rious shades  of  opinion  entertained  by  a  number 
of  experimenters  in  the  obscurer  departments 
of  Biology,  relating  to  the  origin  of  life.  So 
replete  are  the  current  researches  and  theories 
respecting  the  modes  of  the  origin  of  the  lowest 
organisms,  with  shifting  speculation,  that  no- 
thing definite  and  established  can  be  discovered 
in  them.  The  main  topics  for  our  present  pair- 
pose  are  briefly  stated  in  these  pages,  nor  would 
the  reader  acquire  much  advantage  from   at- 


THEORIES   OF  THE   ORIGIN   OF  LIFE.        39r 


tempted  explanations  of  the  Archeg-enesis  of 
Haeckel,  the  Abiogenesis  of  Huxley,  or  the 
Archebiosis  of  Dr.  Bastian.  It  is  certain  that 
Spontaneous  Generation  is  not  a  proved  and 
general  accepted  truth,  though  some  have 
adopted  it ;  and  it  is  quite  certain  that  all  the 
flasks  and  solutions  so  carefully  prepared  in 
the  laboratories  of  chemists,  have  as  yet  failed 
to  show  to  general  satisfaction  that  life  has  been 
evolved  from  non-living  matter.  It  is  possible 
that  Nature  is  so  evolving  life  in  some  of  the 
lowest  organisms;  but  this  is  a  mere  conjecture. 
Beyond  conjecture,  human  art  and  science  have 
failed  to  do  as  much,  except  in  the  opinion  of 
a  few. 

When  the  Chemist  has  really  produced  life 
from  non-life  in  his  laboratory,  it  will  be  proper 
to  consider  how  this  result  affects  our  views. 
But  the  circumstance  of  some  eminent  men 
prophesying  that  one  day  life  may,  or  even  will 
be  so  produced,  can  have  no  effect  upon  our 
present  reasoning.  Chemico-physiological 
researches  have  of  late  years  discovered  many 
of  the  relations  existing  between  animals  and 
vegetables,  and  their  reciprocal  influences. 
They  have  shown  more  to  us  than  we  before 
knew  of  the  accurate  and  wonderful  balance  of 
natural  forces  in  the  whole  organic  kingdom, 


400   VANITY  OF CHEMICO-PHYSICAL  THEORIES. 

and  it  would  indeed  be  agreeable  to  such  a 
writer  as  the  present,  and  fully  accordant  with 
the  object  of  this  volume,  to  detail  the  particu- 
lars. It  is  indeed  unfortunate  that  want  of 
space  forbids  me  to  add  such  details  to  these 
pag-es,  and  especially  unfortunate  that  the  un- 
supported pretensions  of  this  branch  of  Science 
in  respect  of  the  Genesis  of  Life,  compel  me  to 
expose  its  weakness  rather  than  to  show  its 
power.  Its  weakness,  however,  lies  only  in 
certain  directions  while  in  certain  hands. 

No  one  of  the  recent  chemico-physical  theo- 
ries of  life,  however  supported  by  great  names, 
and  by  the  semblance  of  a  scientific  basis,  need 
disquiet  us  greatly.  Those  who  have  been  or 
are  charged  with  ignorance  or  narrowness  for 
not  accepting  them,  pertinently  demand  where 
now  are  similar  favourite  hypotheses  of  old  ? 
What  is  there  in  the  present  theories  to  sustain 
the  test  of  thorough  investigation?  In  this  as  in 
other  departments  of  scientific  enquiry,  the  un- 
instructed  are  haunted  by  a  vague  fear  that 
some  wonderfully  skilful  physicist  will  discover 
something  which  will  weaken  their  belief  in  the 
supernatural,  or  extra-physical  view  of  Life. 
Extremely  few  are  qualified  to  form  any  sound 
opinion  on  such  enquiries,  and  therefore  a  clever 


LIVING  MATTER  DISTINCT  FROM  DEAD.    401 

essay  or  a  well-delivered  lecture  may,  and  for 
years  to  come,  will  throw  the  multitude  into  fear 
and  perplexity. 

So  far  as  it  can  be  done,  it  is  well  to  ground 
men  in  the  conviction  that  the  tiniest  particle  of 
living-  matter  exhibits  no  structure  to  account 
for  its  actions,  and  that  it  contains  nothing 
which  can  by  itself  explain  them.  This  belongs 
to  a  sphere  wholly  different  from  the  mechanical 
sphere.  The  science  of  centuries  has  failed  to 
circumscribe  it  within  that  sphere.  It  may 
be  fancifully  compared  to  a  clock,  but  the 
molecules  of  living  matter  are  arranged  as  they 
never  are  in  dead  matter.  The  living  matter 
exercises  a  power  peculiar  to  itself,  whereby 
elements  which  have  the  strongest  affinity  for 
each  other  are  separated  from  their  combina- 
tions, and  perhaps  made  to  combine  with 
elements  with  which  they  have  no  natural 
affinity,  no  tendency  to  unite.  A  chemist,  by 
the  exercise  of  his  will  and  knowledge  may 
effect  combinations  of  certain  kinds  in  his  la- 
boratory by  the  aid  of  complex  contrivances,  but 
such  a  result  is  at  the  utmost  a  mere  imitation 
of  what  Nature  does  silently,  continually,  and 
without  any  artificial  apparatus.  What  then  is 
the  fair  conclusion  ?  simply  this,  that  Nature 

26 


402  PHRASES  A  or  EXPLANATIONS. 


effects  by  some  influence  superior  to  her  what 
the  chemist  effects  by  his  art  and  free  will. 
Therefore  there  exists  an  art  and  freewill  as  infi- 
nitely superior  to  his,  as  the  whole  never-ceasing 
and  all  comprehending  processes  of  Nature  are 
superior.  As  he  is  in  a  certain  manner  higher 
than  the  Nature  he  works  upon,  so  there  must  be 
something  immeasurably  higher  than  he  him- 
self is,  which  something,  or  some  one,  has  pro- 
duced the  vital  combination  in  his  own  person. 
Nor  do  men  adequately  account  for  and 
explain  this  something  or  some  one  by  calling 
it  a  force,  a  correlated  force,  or  a  force  which  is 
so  essential  to  others  as  to  be  only  one  phase 
of  them,  and  not  a  distinct  vital  force.  To  say 
that  this  force  is  merely  a  correlate  of  sun 
force  or  heat  force ;  to  speak  of  physical, 
chemical,  and  vital  energy  as  if  they  were 
readily  interchangeable  and  convertible,  is 
merely  to  assume  that  they  are  so  without 
proving  it.  We  may  accustom  ourselves  in 
physiology  as  in  theology  to  the  employment  of 
phrases  which  do  not  explain  anything,  and  we 
may  be  as  much  enslaved  by  w^ords  in  the  one 
as  in  the  other.  In  relation  to  a  vital  force, 
correlated  with  mere  physical  force,  we  ask 
what  does  chemical  force  construct  by  its  own 


CONTRADICTIONS  IN  NOTIONS  OF  FORCE.    40: 


unaided  efficacy  ?  Does  it  so  construct  an  or- 
ganized body  ?  If  it  does,  its  presumed  corre- 
lates do  not.  Light,  heat,  electricity,  have 
never  been  detected  in  the  act  of  constructing 
any  known  organism  out  of  the  formless  and 
the  non-organized. 

Forcibly  has  Dr.  Beale  observed,  '*  In  all 
these  notions  the  act  of  formation,  the  cause  of 
formation,  and  action  after  formation  is  complete, 
are  confused  together.  It  is  held  that  the  organ 
which  changes  force  has  been  constructed  by 
force.  Force  is  conditioned  by  the  apparatus 
it  has  built  up.  Force  is  the  architect,  the 
director,  the  builder,  and  force  is  afterwards 
directed,  changed,  and  modified  by  the  working 
of  the  machinery  it  has  designed,  constructed, 
and  made.  Force  is  that  which  conditions,  and 
that  which  is  conditioned.  Force  forms  the 
instrument  which  correlates  and  is  correlated 
by  it.  It  is  at  one  time  that  which  produces 
the  correla.ting  apparatus,  and  at  another  is 
itself  correlated  by  the  results  of  its  own  con- 
structive power.  The  constructor  is  a  correla- 
tive of  the  work  performed  by  the  mechanism 
he  has  produced.  The  artificer^  the  7/iachuie, 
and  the  work  done  by  the  machine,  are  then  all 
correlative." 


404      LIFE  NOT  A  CORRELATIVE  OF  FORCE. 

Conceive  that  all  existing-  life  on  our  earth 
were  suddenly  destroyed ;  what  then  would  be 
the  power  of  the  physical  forces  still  existing  to 
re-commence  and  restore  life?  Assuredly  it 
cannot  be  supposed  that  life  would  re-appear 
apart  from  some  power  able  to  overcome  or- 
dinary tendencies,  and  to  resist  and  control  the 
operation  of  physical  laws.  Moreover,  Force  is 
destructive,  seen  to  be  so  in  the  largest  mea- 
sure ;  but,  if  it  be  vitally  destructive,  the  same 
force  cannot  in  the  same  measure  be  vitally 
constructive,  or  the  result  would  be  no  vitality. 
Creative  Force  postulates  the  Creator. 

Few  men  will  master  the  scientific  terminology 
of  the  adepts,  but  any  ordinary  reader  can 
judge  of  the  method  of  reasoning.  A  fair  com- 
prehension of  the  principles  of  the  modern 
doctrine  of  Force  is  sufficient  for  this  purpose. 
The  aim  of  the  chemico-physical  biologists  is 
to  show  that  life  is  simply  an  undiscovered 
correlative  of  Force — that  it  is  not  a  distinct 
and,  therefore,  cannot  be  a  superior  Force. 
We  have  just  attempted  to  show  how  incon- 
ceivable this  dogma  is  in  consideration  of  its 
mutually  destructive  results.  Add  also  its 
physical  untruth — so  far  as  our  knowledge  of 
life   has    advanced.     Life    must    spring   from 


LIFE  FROM  ANTECEDENT  LIFE.  405 

antecedent  life ;  one  antecedent  from  a  like 
antecedent, — and  this  appears  sound  and  in- 
tellisrible.  Quite  the  reverse  of  intellio^ible  is 
the  doctrine  that  life  may  spring  spontaneously 
from  antecedent  death,  just  as  easily  as  fiom 
life.  Yet,  if  there  ba  only  a  physical  basis  for 
all  life,  and  a  common  protoplasm  for  all ;  if 
for  all  existences,  the  highest  and  the  lowest, 
the  corporeal  and  the  psychical,  one  common 
Force  correlated  with  all  other  forces,  suffices 
to  construct  all  living  beings  from  the  lowest 
animal  to  man,  both  the  man's  body  and  the 
man's  soul;  and  if  lastly  the  nature  of  that 
common  force  be  utterly  unknowable,  abso- 
lutely and  for  ever  unascertainable,  then  to 
call  man  the  wonder  and  glory  of  the  universe, 
is  the  bitterest  of  all  scizntific  satires,  and  the 
cruellest  of  all  modern  philosophical  mockeries. 
Surely  man  was  made  in  vain  ! 

The  common  tendency  of  the  hypotheses  of 
Mr.  Darwin,  the  philosophy  of  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer,  and  the  views  of  Mr.  Huxley,  on  life 
and  Protoplasm,  towards  an  all-engrossing 
materialism,  must  be  apparent.  However  the 
respective  authors  may  differ  in  some  tenets, 
they  agree  in  the  direction  of  their  issues.  This, 
in  the  case  of  two  of  them,  has  been  well  ex- 


4o6  S2IRLING    ON  HUXLEY. 


pressed  by  Dr.  J.  H.  Stirling,  in  the  following 
passage  from  his  critique  on  Mr.  Huxley  : — "  It 
is  to  be  acknowledged  that  Mr.  Huxley  would 
be  very  much  assisted  in  his  identification  of 
differences,  were  but  the  theories  of  the  Mole- 
cularists,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  Mr.  Darwin 
on  the  other,  once  for  all  established.  The 
three  modes  of  theorizing  indicated,  indeed,  are 
not  without  a  tendency  to  approach  one  ano- 
ther ;  and  it  is  precisely  their  union  that  would 
secure  a  definitive  triumph  for  the  doctrine  of 
materialism.  Mr.  Huxley,  as  we  have  seen, — 
though  what  he  desiderates  is  an  autoplastic 
living  7Jiatter,  that,  produced  by  ordinary 
chemical  processes,  is  yet  capable  of  continuing 
and  developing  itself  into  new  and  yet  higher 
forms — still  begins  with  the  ^gg.  Now  the 
theory  of  the  molecularist,  would,  for  its  part, 
remove  all  those  difficulties  that,  for  materialism, 
are  involved  in  this  beginning ;  it  would  place 
protoplasm  undeniably  at  length  on  a  merely 
chemical  level ;  and  would  fairly  enable  Mr. 
Darwin,  supplemented  by  such  a  life-stufi",  to 
account  by  natural  means  for  anything  like  an 
idea  or  thought  that  appears  in  Creation.  The 
misfortune  is,  however,  that  we  must  believe 
the  theory  of  the  molecularists  still  to  await  the 


STIRLING   ON  DARWIN.  407 

proof;  while  the  theory  of  ]\Ir.  Darwin  has 
many  difficulties  peculiar  to  itself.  This  theory 
philosophically,  or  in  ultimate  analysis,  is  an 
attempt  to  prove  that  design,  or  the  objective 
idea  especially  in  the  organic  world,  is  deve- 
loped in  time  by  natural  means.  The  time 
which  Mr.  Darwin  demands,  it  is  true  is  an  in- 
finite time ;  and  he  thus  gains  the  advantage  of 
his  processes,  being  allowed  greater  clearness 
for  the  understanding,  in  consequence  of  the 
obscurity  of  the  infinite  past  in  which  they  are 
placed,  and  of  which  it  is  difficult  in  the  first 
instance  to  deny  any  possibility  whatever.  Still 
it  remains  to  be  asked.  Are  such  processes 
credible  in  any  time  ?  Is  it  true  that  the  ob- 
jective idea,  the  design  which  we  see  in  the 
organized  world,  is  the  result  in  infinite  time  of 
the  necessary  adaptation  of  living  structures  to 
the  peculiarity  of  the  conditions  by  which  they 
are  surrounded  ?  Neither  Molecularists  nor 
Darwinians  are  able  to  level  out  the  difference 
between  organic  and  inorganic,  or  between 
genera  and  genera,  or  species  and  species.  The 
differences  persist  in  spite  of  both  ;  the  distri- 
buted identity  remains  unaccounted  for.  Nor 
consequently  is  Mr.  Darwin's  theory  competent 
to  explain  the  objective  idea  by  any  reference 


4o8  STIRLING    ON  DARWIN. 

to  time  and  conditions.  Living-  beings  do 
exist  in  a  mighty  chain  from  the  moss  to  the 
man ;  but  that  chain,  far  from  founding,  is 
founded  in  the  idea,  and  is  not  the  result  of  any 
mere  natural  growth  into  this  or  that.  That 
chain  is  itself  the  most  brilliant  stamp  and 
sign-manual  of  design." 


THE  ASCENT  OF  MAN,  409 


XVIII. 

THE  ASCENT  OF  MAN. 

r7N0UGH  of  the  ''  Descent  of  Man."  It  is 
^-^  to  a  noble  ancestry  that  the  strict  natu- 
ralists have  traced  him  !  An  Ascidian  is  the 
root  of  this  genealogical  tree,  abominable 
creeping  things  are  on  the  trunk,  while  in  the 
branches  thereof  all  the  unclean  birds  and  flying 
things  do  rest.  Man  is  bone  of  their  bones, 
flesh  of  their  flesh,  and  mind  of  their  mind.  In 
another  aspect,  man  is  a  mere  coherent  aggre- 
gate of  particles  of  dust.  He  is  a  mass  of 
material  molecules,  from  the  biological  aggre- 
gation of  which  have  been  evolved  human 
consciousness  and  the  human  soul.  "  Dust 
thou  art,"  echoes  to  him  the  physico-chemist, 
*'  and  to  dust  thou  shalt  return."  Dust  thou  art 
in  body,  soul,  and  spirit ;  only  let  there  be 
changes  in  the  direction  of  certain  forces,  and 
in  one  moment  thou  shalt  return,  all  in  all,  to 


4IO  OUR  DEBT   TO  NATURALISM. 

forceless  dust  !     Thy  highest  relations  are  cor-      ] 
relations  of  force.     Yes,  thy  matter,  thy  spirit,       i 
thy  thought,  thy  mind,  thy  God,  are  all  things       ! 
of   which    thou   art    and  must    be,   absolutely       j 
ignorant.     Thou  mayest  indeed   be  useful   to 
thy  fellow-men,  and  this  possible  utility  is  the 
source  and   sum   of  thy  virtues,  the  motive  of      i 
thy  morality,  the  philosophy  of  thy  societies. 
Let  living  dust  be  useful  to  living  dust.     Let       i 
human  molecular  activities  benefit  other  human       I 
molecular  activities.     For  this  object  we  are      ] 
evolved ;  and  yet,  even  this,  without  pre-con-       ! 
sidered  purpose  ! — Such  is  the  sum  of  our  debt      \ 
to  Naturalistic  Science.     It  has  wrought  hard,       ; 
by  night  and  by  day,  to   amass  this  sum,   to 
state  it  in  figures,  and  to  support  it  by  pheno- 
mena.     But  thinking  men,  not  of  this  school,       j 
who  yet  see  the  significance  of  all  phenomena 
when  admitted  to    be    real,    discover   In    this 
Naturalism  only  a  dexterous    arrangement,   a 
skilful  marshalling,  and  a  specious  presentation 
of  visible  things.     The  facts   are  all  made  to 
face   one  way,   and  drilled  to   one  system    of 
movements.      This  philosophy  is  founded   on 
Natural    Phenomena   drilled   and   faced   upon 
Military  principles. 

Mr.  Darwin  discharges  the  office  of  a  veteran 


SCIENTIFIC  DRILLING   OF  FACTS.  411 


general.  He  has  gathered  a  vast  army  of 
facts  or  phenomena  ;  he  has  drilled  them  during 
many  years  upon  one  system ;  he  has  clothed 
them  in  one  uniform  ;  and  then  he  has  given 
aloud  his  Napoleonic  command — '*  March  !  To 
Creation  !  Go  and  overthrow  it."  The 
obedient  army  has  marched  on,  mighty,  force- 
ful, irresistible  —  and  lo,  Special  Creation  is 
no  more  a  stronghold  ! 

But  another  general  might  appear  in  the 
field ;  a  general  on  the  side  of  the  fallen  foe ; 
and  he  might  say,  *'  Give  me  the  same  army, 
the  same  advantage,  the  same  friends  and  co- 
operation, and  I  will  clothe  these  facts  in  our 
uniform,  lead  them  to  battle  on  our  side,  and  I 
doubt  not  that  I  also  could  conduct  this  same 
army  to  victory  !  "  After  all,  then,  the  whole 
secret  lies  in  generalship.  We  have  long  seen 
this  in  war,  we  now  see  it  in  Science — on  the 
one  side ;  it  is  to  be  hoped  we  shall  speedily 
behold  it  on  the  other. 

''It  is  dangerous,"  said  Pascal,  ''to  make 
man  see  how  like  he  is  to  the  beasts,  without 
showing  him  his  grandeur.  It  is  likewise  dan- 
gerous to  show  him  his  grandeur  without  ex- 
hibiting his  baseness.  It  is  still  more  dangerous 
to  leave  him  io:norant  of  the  one  and  the  other; 


412        MAN  NEITHER  BRUTE  NOR  ANGEL. 

but  it  is  most  advantageous  to  represent  to  him 
the  one  and  the  other."  * 

In  the  copy,  though  not  in  the  autograph, 
there  follows:  ''Man  ought  not  to  think  him- 
self on  a  level  with  the  brutes,  nor  equal  to  the 
ang-els ;  neither  ought  he  to  be  ignorant  of 
either ;  but  he  should  know  how  he  resembles 
both." 

Pascal's  danger  has  been  incurred  on  the  one 
side  by  the  strict  Naturalists,  on  the  other  by 
the  strict  Theologians.  The  strict  Naturalists 
have  now  done  their  utmost  to  show  to  man,  not 
only  his  likeness  to  the  beasts,  but  his  direct 
descent  from  them,  and  his  intercommunity 
of  nature  with  them.  The  Theologians  have 
done  their  utmost  on  the  other  side,  though 
possibly  what  they  have  done  has  not  been 
effected  so  scientifically  and  so  adroitly.  When 
they  have  wrought  as  thoroughly,  and  asserted 
as  loudly,  and  have  marshalled  their  forces  as 
commandingly  as  their  foes,  it  is  probable  that 
man  will  see  a  little  more  of  the  angels,  and  a 
little  less  of  the  brutes. 

There  are  moods  of  mind  in  which,  when 
baffled  and  repulsed  in  our  higher  inquiries,  we 
fall  back  into  a  state  of  hopelessness,  and  say 

*  Pensues  de  Pascal.     Ed.  Faugcre,  p.  85. 


VANITY  OF  NATURAL  HUMANITY,         413 

10  ourselves,  What  is  the  whole  human  race  but 
a  group  of  tired  children,  sitting  at  the  wane  ol 
a  summer's  day  in  listless  society ;  some  hall 
satisfied^  some  disappointed,  some  successful, 
some  beaten,  some  quarrelsome  and  content- 
ious, some  sleepful  and  heavy ;  a  few  hopeful, 
most,  however,  neither  hopeful  nor  fearful ;  all 
ignorant  of  the  morrow,  and  meanwhile  all 
waiting  for  the  fast  coming,  long  enduring  and 
dreaming  night! 

Such  is  the  mood  of  mind  to  which  we  are 
brought  by  the  study  prolonged  during  some 
years  of  the  Naturalists  and  Chemico-Physicists 
of  our  world  of  Science.  Assuredly  the  effect 
of  such  study  long  continued  is  melancholy. 
In  their  atmosphere  there  is  little  ozone,  it  is 
heavy  and  spiritless.  One  desires  with  an  in- 
expressible longing,  the  influence  of  some  power 
above  solar  force,  to  lift  the  miserable  human 
race  above  the  level  of  precise  Phenomenalists. 
Most  men  have  private  sorrows  enough  of  their 
own  to  depress  them,  and  they  will  not  be 
easily  consoled  by  the  demonstration  of  their 
apish  descent,  or  of  their  involvement  in  the 
universal  Evolution  which  wraps  them  in  its 
mysterious  folds.  ''After  all,"  they  will  vSay, 
"-  after    all,     granted    that    your    Evolutional 


414  MOMENTOUS  QUESTIONS. 


hypotheses  are  unassailable  and  true,  what  are 
we  as  men  ?  What  are  our  inalienable  charac- 
teristics ?  You  determine  what  we  came  from. 
Explain  to  us  whither  we  are  going  !  What  is 
the  significance  of  the  human  individual  ? 
What  is  the  significance  of  the  human  race  ? 
If  from  you  we  accept  our  past,  of  you  we 
ask,  What  is  our  future  ?  How  does  our 
present  bear  upon,  and  influence  our  future  ? 
No  Science  and  no  Philosophy  can  exercise  an 
abiding  influence  upon  us  which  does  not  at 
least  attempt  to  inform  us  what  man  is  in  rela- 
tion to  Time,  to  Space,  to  Nature,  and  to  God. 
This  is  the  quadrature  of  the  philosophical 
circle." 

Such  will  be  the  questions  asked,  and  Natu- 
ralism must  reply,  *'  The  answer  is  not  in  me." 

Let  us  attempt  an  approximate  and  concise 
solution  of  these  questions  ;  adding  two  others, 
which  arise  out  of  them. 

/.   What  then  is  Alan  in  Relation  to  Time  ? 

A  late  comer  upon  earth,  whether  he  came 
as  early  or  not  as  some  Geological  speculators 
suppose.  Not  only  is  he  a  late  comer,  but  he 
is  a  brief  sojourner  here.  In  his  relation  to 
Time,  man  is  an  Ephemera,  comparatively  the 
creature  of  a  day.     True  that  most  men  are 


MAN  IN  RELATION  TO    TIME.  415 

old  when  new  men  are  born,  and  are  still 
flourishing  when  he  dies.  Yet  this  creature 
of  a  day  is  the  measurer  and  calculator  of 
years — of  all  the  years  of  human  history,  and 
the  chronolog-er  of  successive  empires.  He 
takes  all  history  to  himself,  and  he  himself 
makes  all  noteworthy  history.  Moreover,  he 
goes  beyond  and  searches  before  human  history, 
and  scrutinizes  the  illimitable  past.  He  busies 
himself  with  remote  geological  eras,  he  calcu- 
lates or  conjectures  periods  that  throw  human 
annals  into  insignificant  brevity.  He  who 
seldom  or  ever  lives  for  one  century,  grasps 
in  thought  a  thousand  centuries,  and  even  then 
conceives  of  an  antecedent  time.  To  him  the 
universe  is  one  great  dial- face,  and  his  eye 
alone  upon  earth  can  trace  its  hour  hand.  Of 
all  creatures  living  here,  man  alone  knows  and 
notes  Time.  He,  first  of  all  creatures,  notes  the 
huge  pendulum,  a  few  of  whose  noiseless  beats 
measure  his  life-span.  But  though  he  dies,  the 
pendulum  moves  on  and  marks  the  short  dura- 
tion and  hurried  departure  of  generations 
until  the  great  dial  face  will  be  unread. 

//.    What  is  Alan  in  Relation  to  Space  ? 

An  atom ;  an  invisible  atom  if  there  were 
but   one  man,  and  visible   only  in  the  human 


4i6  MAN  IN  RELATION  TO  SPACE. 


multitude.  Man  is  an  atom  in  material  bulk, 
but  he  is  above  all  other  things,  a  tJiinking 
atom.  He  is  an  atom  that  thinks  himself 
through  all  space ;  that  measures  stars  and 
their  orbits  and  intervals  ;  that  circumnavigates 
the  globe,  and  calculates  the  courses  of  futurity  ; 
an  atom  that  floats  in  a  sunbeam,  yet,  while 
floating,  studies  the  beam,  measures  its  bright- 
ness, assigns  its  several  colours  to  their  places, 
goes  far  up  with  the  beam  to  its  parent  sun, 
traces  light  to  the  remotest  planets,  resolves 
rays  into  spectra,  experiments  and  finds  con- 
stituent metals  in  orbs  many  millions  of  miles 
distant  from  himself. 

Yes,  he  is  an  atom  in  space,  while  he  sounds 
the  depths  of  oceans,  makes  vapour  his 
charioteer,  and  electricity  his  messenger.  His 
first  home  is  a  little  cradle,  his  last  a  narrow 
coffin ;  but  in  the  interval  between  these,  man 
is  the  King  of  Space.  His  first  cries  reach 
only  his  mother's  ear,  his  last,  only  the  ear  of 
his  faithful  friend  ;  but  meanwhile  he  has  laid 
long  wires  in  the  chambers  of  the  deep,  and 
sends  his  will  and  his  words  across  the  world. 

///.    WJiat  is  Man  in  Relation  to  Nature  ? 

He  is  a  part  of  Nature,  and  yet  in  mind  dis- 
tinct from  it.     He  is  superior  to  Nature,  yet 


MAN  IN  RELATION  TO  NATURE.  417 

shares  its  sufferings.  He  is  master  of  Nature, 
and  yet  a  fellow-servant  with  it  to  a  Higher 
Master.  He  is  a  lover  of  Nature,  yet  by  her 
unbeloved ;  an  imitator  of  Nature,  yet  always 
her  inferior ;  a  copyist,  yet  never  equal  to  the 
original.  Man  is  the  interrogator  of  Nature, 
though  she,  too,  often  leaves  him  unanswered. 
Speech  is  his.  Silence  hers.  He  paints  por- 
traitures of  Nature,  and,  lover-like,  sees  beauties 
in  her  which  to  loveless  eyes  .are  not  in  her.  He 
is  the  compeller  of  Nature,  for  she  does  his 
bidding ;  her  slave,  for  he  does  hers.  One 
while  he  stands  up  king  before  her,  and  she 
crouches  at  his  feet ;  another  while  she  rises  up 
in  storm,  and  earth-throe,  and  hre,  against  him, 
and  instantly  he  becomes  her  victim. 

In  respect  of  her,  man  commonly  thinks  of 
Nature  as  standing  between  him  and  God. 
Rather  let  us  ask,  does  not  Man  stand  between 
Nature  and  God  ?  Man  gazes  upon  her  fair  and 
o-]orious  countenance,  and  sees  there  a  reflection 
of  God.  While  God  Himself  is  distinct  from 
Nature,  she  yet  reflects  God's  image  to  man, 
and  shows  to  him  the  presence  and  power  of  the 
Divinity  in  this  world. 

IV.    What  is  Man  in  relation  to  the  totality  of 
Natural  life  ?    I  cannot  precisely  answer.     This 

27 


41 8  MAN  IN  RELATION  TO  NATURE, 

is  a  mystery  beyond  human  solution.  That  he 
bears  some  relation  to  the  living  totality,  we 
may  be  sure.  That  subtle  links  bind  together 
the  whole  organic  kingdoms  is  not  a  fancy,  but 
a  verity.  Who  can  discern  those  links  ?  No 
Biologist,  no  Theologian.  The  relationship  of 
Man  to  even  a  small  part  of  the  sum  of  living 
things  now  upon  the  face  of  this  earth  is  hardly 
capable  of  expression.  It  is  far  easier  to  say 
where  he  is  out  of  relation  to  them  all,  than  to 
define  what  his  relation  is  to  a  fraction  of  them. 
Utilitarianism  signally  fails  here,  and  Positivism 
is  absolutely  dumb.  Science  shows  us  but 
little,  and  Imagination  is  here  feeble  and  sickly. 
The  vaunted  Equivalence  of  Forces  reduces  us 
to  a  level ;  Poetry  carries  us  high  and  far,  but 
soon  falls  in  baffled  flight.  Atheism  pro- 
nounces that  there  is  no  relation.  Religion 
declares  there  is.  Still  it  is  a  great  secret,  and  we 
can  only  repeat,  "  The  whole  creation  groaneth 
and  travaileth  until  now."  The  secret  lies  in  the 
heart  of  the  Creator.  In  a  loftier  state  of  being 
this  hidden  thing  may  be  disclosed  to  us ;  and 
if  it  ever  be  disclosed,  or,  be  only  in  slow  pro- 
cess of  disclosure,  w^e  may  well  look  forward  to 
such  a  revelation  as  no  inconsiderable  element 
of  our  future  felicity.     Undoubtedly,  all  Nature 


MAN  IN  RELATION  TO   GOD.  419 

is  intimately  related  to  God,  and  therefore  in 
some  manner  to  man. 

V.    What  is  Man  in  relation  to  God  ? 

Man  is  a  sinner,  and  Man  is  a  servant  of 
God.  A  sinner — and  if  he  persist,  and  perish 
in  his  sins,  this  dark  character  is  perpetuated. 
As  a  sinful  being,  his  lower  nature  is  his  burden 
and  too  often  his  master.  He  is  dragged 
down  earthwards  by  tyrannous  passions,  yet, 
as  a  penitent,  he  is  lifted  heavenwards  by 
noble  aspirations.  This  twofold  nature  makes 
man  an  enigma,  a  perplexity,  a  self-contradic- 
tion. There  are,  then,  two  homes  for  him. 
On  earth  he  may  be  a  centre  of  evil;  or,  he 
may  become  a  source  of  good  ;  here  he  is  des- 
picable in  his  deformity,  or  admirable  in  his 
benevolence ;  here  he  is  seen  grovelling  in  mire, 
or  mounting  as  on  the  wings  of  eagles. 

And  this  twofold  nature  influences  and  deter- 
mines Man's  destiny  in  relation  to  Time.  Yes- 
terday he  was  sunk  in  ignorance  and  despair, 
to-day  he  is  in  pain  and  bereavement,  to- 
morrow he  will  be  liberated  and  angelic.  Re- 
gard man  only  as  a  creature  of  the  past  or  the 
present,  and  you  see  only  the  enigmatical  and 
the  perplexing.  Look  at  him  as  a  being  of  the 
future,  and  you  discern  his  nobler  nature  tri- 


420  HARMONY  IN  HOLINESS  AND  PURITY. 

umphant  and  complete.  As  a  sinner  in  a  sin- 
less world  of  nature,  he  alone  is  against  God. 
As  a  penitent  and  a  believer,  he  is  as  one  with 
Nature  and  at  one  with  God.  The  harmony  is 
in  human  holiness  ;  the  perfection,  in  human 
purity.  **  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for 
they  shall  see  God."  Apart  from  its  Divine 
authority,  this  is  a  truth  of  reason  and  experi- 
ence. None  but  the  pure  in  heart  can  look 
upon  perfect  purity  and  appreciate  it.  An  im- 
pure man  misreads  innocence  when  he  meets 
it.  He  thinks  it  a  counterfeit,  because  he  him- 
self is  counterfeit.  But  the  pure  in  heart  see 
God  in  the  ardently  desired  purity  of  striving 
humanity.  He  who  demands  perfect  objective 
purity,  discerns  it  in  God.  All  the  base  pas- 
sions of  our  lower  nature  are  consumed  in  the 
sacrificial  flame  which  ever  burns  on  the  altar 
of  a  pure  heart.  That  flame  goes  up  to  heaven, 
and  is  there  accepted.  The  vested  Are  of  vestal 
purity  is  never  extinguished ;  it  kindles  ever- 
more in  the  ardour  of  Divine  worship. 

Man  is  also  a  servant  of  God.  Is  he  God's 
servant  ?  then  God  has  given  to  him  inferior 
servants  to  obey  and  benefit  him.  Nature 
at  large  is  Man's  servant;  but  in  availing 
himself  of  Nature's  service,  let  man  remem- 


MAN  AS  A    SERVANT   OF   GOD.  421 

ber  that  she  ministers  to  him  chiefly  that 
he  may  minister  to  God.  The  King,  the 
Divine  Master,  is  for  the  present  hour  away 
in  a  far  country ;  and  to  Man  He  has  com- 
mitted the  keeping  and  charge  of  Nature. 
Man  may  command  and  enjoy  the  benefits 
of  every  inferior  servant  of  the  absent  King; 
but  the  King  will  one  day  return  and  rigor- 
ously require  an  account  of  his  servants  at  the 
hands  of  Man.  Shame  and  confusion  of  face 
to  the  viceroy,  if  in  that  day  he  has  nothing  to 
render  but  an  account  of  riotous  living  and 
reckless  profusion!  Who  shall  deny  that  the 
King  will  justly  reward  all  such  according  to 
their  doings,  and  reward  them  by  reversing 
their  former  condition  ;  by  making  the  servants 
masters,  and  man  their  former  master,  hence- 
forth their  everlasting  servant  ?  Would  not 
this  be  a  just  sentence  in  the  eye  of  all  right- 
eous intelligences  ?  *'  Go,  thou  riotous  and  un- 
reckoning  profligate  ;  I  made  thee  master  over 
many  servants  that  thou  mightest  the  better 
serve  me.  Thou  hast  abused  thy  privilege  and 
denied  me.  Go  hence,  and  instead  of  being 
master  of  many  servants,  serve  thou  them  as 
thy  many  masters  !  " 

And   here   a   momentous  question    may   be 


422  DESTINY   OF   THE  HUMAN  RACE. 

asked,  which  cannot  be  fully  answered,  though 
by  thoughtful  men  it  is  frequently  pondered. 

VI,    What  is  the  Destiny  of  the  Huviaii  Race  ? 

Naturalists,  physicists,  philosophers,  have  not 
grappled  with  this  momentous  enquiry.  They 
have  left  it  in  outer  darkness,  or,  perhaps  they 
have  made  it  darker  than  it  was  before.  Revela- 
tion sheds  only  a  partial  ray  upon  it,  yet  we  must 
use  all  the  light  we  have.  The  light  of  Sci- 
ence, not  as  it  is  in  our  day,  but  as  it  may  shine 
in  time  to  come,  and  with  better  teachers  and 
reasoners  than  we  now  have,  may  show  new 
ground  to  Faith.  Combining  both  the  light  of 
Nature  and  of  Revelation,  we  discern,  at  the 
present,  Hope — Hope,  and  no  more.  The  en- 
ormous extension  of  Geological  Time  is  a  great 
help  in  this  respect,  that  it  postulates  for  all 
Divine  action  vast  periods  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  any  determinate  change.  He  to  whom 
a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day  to  us,  does  not 
work  upon  our  scale,  but  on  His  own.  Eternity 
is  His  time  ;  and  though  eternity  be  but  a  nega- 
tive of  terminableness,  yet  that  very  negative 
exercises  its  influence  upon  our  interpretation 
of  His  purposes.  If  He  be  goodness  abstracted 
from  imperfection,  and  unbounded  by  limits, 
goodness  in  some  shape  must  be  the  issue  of 


DESTINY  OF  THE  HUMAN  RACE.  423 

all.  For  man  to'  speculate  how  this  will  be 
brought  about,  in  what  measures  and  at  what 
periods,  would  be  like  the  speculation  of  an  As- 
cidian  upon  what  it  will  ultimately  become. 
By  naturalistic  Evolution,  the  Ascidian  becomes 
Man.  Could  that  Ascidian  have  forecast  this 
its  marvellous  destiny  ?  Man  may  become  an 
angel;  but  could  he  have  forecast  this  his 
ultimate  destiny  by  the  teaching  of  the  highest 
Natural  Science  1 

All  ultimate  issues  not  yet  accomplished  and 
recognized  are  mysteries.  No  man  denies  this; 
but  mystery  in  the  light  of  the  Higher  Ministry 
of  Nature  is  not  Hopelessness — nay,  it  is  the 
dark  ground  of  Hope.  It  is  the  dark  ground 
on  which  the  bright  colours  of  the  glorious 
future  are  laid.  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what 
we  shall  be;"  but  Hope  prefigures  it,  and 
Faith  is  built  upon  confidence  in  the  Great 
Evolver.  Faith  has  a  kingdom  of  her  own,  and 
calls  Hope  to  share  her  crown. 


424  DEA'I^i. 


XIX. 

DEATH. 

T  IFE  is  the  field  of  philosophies  ;  Death  is 
^-^  the  limit  of  the  field  and  the  test  of  the 
philosophies.  We  may  during-  life  indulge 
in  many  speculations ;  death  compels  us  to 
realize  or  abandon  them.  Not  many  men  see 
others  die,  not  many  men  reflect  profoundly 
on  what  they  have  seen ;  hence  death,  under 
natural  circumstances,  fails  to  impress  us,  and 
life  and  speculation  go  on  as  before. 

There  is  a  picture  of  Supreme  Deity,  by 
Quintin  Matsys,  painted  in  so  masterly  a  man- 
ner, that  the  eye  seems  to  look  upon  you  directly 
in  any  quarter  of  the  room  in  which  it  is  sus- 
pended. He  who  writes  has  tested  that  re- 
markably pictured  eye,  and  in  no  part  of  the 
gallery  could  he  escape  its  piercing  glance. 
Such  is  the  eye  of  Death  ;  like  the  eye  of  a 
master's  portraiture,  it  follows   you   wherever 


THE  FEAR   OF  DEATH.  425 

you  stand.  It  fixes  itself  on  you  at  the  re- 
motest corner  of  life  ;  it  is  impossible  to  escape 
it ;   it  pierces  you  everywhere. 

In  our  youth  we  are  too  gleesome  to  think 
much  of  Death,  for  is  it  not  far  away  from 
youth?  In  middle  age  we  are  too  busy  to  think 
much  of  Death,  for  are  we  not  bound  to  the 
duties  and  burdens  of  life  ?  In  old  age  we 
think  of  little  else  than  Death,  for  are  we  not 
at  its  door  ?  Is  not  that  eye  fixed  upon  us  with 
a  perpetual  menace  ?  We  are  fascinated  and 
tremble  at  its  glance  ! 

The  counsels  of  mere  men  of  this  world,  the 
conclusions  of  mere  Naturalism,  do  not  avail  us 
much  to  diminish  this  fear  of  death.  It  is  a 
mockery  to  console  us  with  the  repetition  of  the 
fact,  that  it  is  a  universal  law  of  Nature, — that 
it  is  a  sure  consequence  of  life  ;  that  it  is  inevi- 
table, must  be  met,  and  should  be  calmly  suf- 
fered. A  hundred  Senecas  may  rhetorize  *'  on 
the  Contempt  of  Death,"  but  not  one  man  ever 
despised  it  the  more  or  dreaded  it  the  less  for 
Seneca.  Painters  have  mockingly  depicted  the 
"Dance  of  Death,"  but  neither  pictorial  nor  rhe- 
torical art  can  delight  or  delude  us  when  the 
reality  approaches. 

Men  die  a  thousand  deaths  in  fearing  one. 


426  THE  FEAR   OF  DEATH. 


Animals  do  not  thus  die  a  thousand  deaths ; 
they  die  but  one,  and  that  apparently  without 
anticipation  and  without  dread.  What  occa- 
sions this  disturbing  fear  in  man  ?  Is  it  a  con- 
sequence of  Natural  Selection  ?  Is  it  molecu- 
larly  evolved  ?  It  is  not  in  the  Ascidian  ;  not 
in  the  Saurian,  not  in  the  Anthropoid  ape; — 
whence  then  does  it  arise  ?  No  materialist  can 
deny  that  with  all  its  force  it  is  a  fear  dis- 
tinctive of  humanity ;  and  the  more  powerful  in 
proportion  to  the  cultivation  and  sensibility  of 
the  individual.  No  doubt  it  is  unmanly  to  be 
continually  haunted  by  the  apprehension  of 
death ;  still,  it  is  truly  human,  for  no  being* 
below  man  is  harassed  by  it. 

All  who  believe  in  the  existence  of  God  are 
at  once  able  to  trace  this  dread  of  death  to  the 
fear  of  meeting  Him.  The  enlightened  thinker 
may  not  expect  to  meet  God  face  to  face 
literally  after  death ;  but  he  feels  assured 
that  he  will  then  enter  upon  a  state  in  which  he 
must  be  more  conscious  of  a  nearer  and  com- 
paratively immediate  relation  to  Omnipotence. 

In  our  ignorance,  we  may  continue  to  call 
death  a  meeting  with  our  Maker.  However  in- 
comprehensible He  is,  we  shall  all  in  some 
manner  after  death  confront  Him.     It  matters 


DEATH  AS  A   PHYSICAL  LAW.  427 


little  how,  and  little  where,  for  the  g-eneral  con- 
sideration of  the  dread  change  before  us. 

There  are  two  directions  In  which  our  thoughts 
move  when  influenced  by  the  anticipation  of 
meeting  the  Great  Deity  after  death ; — one  is 
that  of  Terror,  the  other  is  that  of  Love. 

A  study  of  the  universality  and  rigidity  of 
physical  law  inspires  the  former,  and  intensifies 
it  In  proportion  to  the  extent  of  our  knowledge 
of  physical  law,  and  our  consciousness  of  the 
impossibility  of  evading  It.  It  is  rigid  as  an  iron 
bar,  inflexible  as  a  granite  rock,  all-embracing 
as  the  atmosphere.  And  If  there  be  nothing 
but  such  law  In  the  Ruler  of  Nature,  then  we 
literally  live  under  an  iron  despotism.  Men 
may  as  well  disport  themselves  for  a  few  short 
years,  enjoy  their  scant  measure  of  delights, 
and  then  die  unreflectingly  and  resignedly,  If 
there  be  only  physical  law  for  them  all.  What 
Is  death  but  one  penalty  or  power  of  this  law, 
the  endurance  of  a  sentence  long-pronounced  ? 

Represent  death  physically  under  whatever 
metaphor  you  will,  it  Is  In  effect  the  same.  De- 
scribe It  as  the  running-down  of  a  clock-weight 
when  the  winding  power  is  no  more  renewed  ;  or 
as  the  flowing  forth  of  water  from  a  cistern  when 
the  plug  is  removed  ;  or  as  the  dissolution  of 


428  EUTHANASIA, 


co-ordinated  forces  ;  or  as  the  re-distribution 
of  vital  energies  ;  the  result  is  the  same,  and  a 
variation  of  metaphor  affords  no  relief  It  is 
no  relief  to  say  that  in  dying  we  only  submit  to 
a  universal  law ;  it  does  not  diminish  the  terror 
of  death  to  say  that  it  is  the  condition  of  living, 
the  pre-destined  decay  of  Nature.  A  fanciful 
poet  may  embellish  death  with  beautiful  tropes, 
but  at  death  every  man  forgets  the  tropes 
and  faces  the  unembellished  enemy.  From 
art,  then,  from  poetry,  from  naturalism,  from 
materialism,  and  even  from  idealism,  we  shall 
never  learn  the  secret  of  the  Euthanasia. 

Has  any  man  discovered  the  secret  of  Eutha- 
nasia ?  There  appear  to  have  been  some  men 
who  in  long  past  ages  discovered  it,  and  some 
also  now  discover  and  exemplify  it.  These  men 
have  been,  and  are,  of  all  classes,  orders,  ages, 
and  measures  of  ability  and  cultivation.  From 
slaves  to  masters,  subjects  to  sovereigns,  weak 
to  strong,  ignorant  to  wise,  the  world  has  always 
seen  instances  of  the  power  to  conquer  the 
dread  of  dying.  This  has  not  been  the  mere  vic- 
tory of  Stoicism,  because  it  has  passed  Stoical 
bounds.  It  has  introduced  hope  as  the  suc- 
cessor of  indifference.  It  has  passed  the  bounds 
of  cold  submission.     It  has  ascended  above  the 


THE  ALP-GLOW  BEFORE  DEATLL  429 


line  of  perpetual  snow,  and  has  shown  itself  to 
astonished  spectators  in  the  beautiful  Alp- 
glow,  of  the  serene  evening  of  life. 

After  that  Alp-glow  comes  death.  But 
gaze  before  death  : — What  beauty  beyond  the 
rhetoric  of  words,  beyond  the  reach  of  art,  is 
for  a  few  minutes  visible  on  that  countenance 
turned  to  the  sunlit  heavens!  Through  the  whole 
long  day  of  life  we  patiently  wait  to  see  this 
final  glory.  During  that  doubtful  day-time, 
clouds  and  mists,  damp  and  heat,  hang  around 
the  mountain  peaks.  On  them  is  no  joy,  no 
hope  ;  not  a  single  beam.  But  the  expected 
evening  comes ;  we  are  standing  around,  await- 
ing immediate  night.  Then  suddenly  appears 
the  glory  indescribable; — at  first  faint,  after- 
wards full  and  unearthly.  While  we  gaze  spell- 
bound, the  fiush  begins  to  pale;  too  soon  it  fades 
away,  and  then  succeeds  a  pure  pallor  that  tells 
us  the  sun  of  life's  day  has  set.  Yet  that  pure 
pallor,  to  him  who  stands  long  and  alone  to 
gaze  upon  it,  has  a  mournful  beauty  of  its  own. 
It  is  hueless  iciness  ;  but  how  lately  it  bore  the 
investing  colours  of  unearthly  splendour  ! 

Thus  we  are  led  to  that  other  direction  of 
thought,  to  that  which  is  above  the  physical 
law  of  death — viz.  Divine  Love. 


430  DIVIDE   LOVE   ABOVE  DEATH. 


1  his  is  distinctively  the  Christian  direction  ; 
yet,  not  opposed  to  physical  law,  only  tran- 
scendently  higher.  We  call  it  another  direc- 
tion because  men  have  made  it  such ;  but  our 
aim  is  to  denote  a  continued  operation  of 
the  same  power  in  higher  regions.  We  are 
involved  in  a  scheme  of  Nature  marked  by  law, 
and  yet,  in  the  highest  view,  equally  under  a 
dominion  marked  by  love.  Natural  Science 
leads  us  to  acknowledge  the  one.  Super-natural 
Science  the  other.  But  the  Super-natural 
Science  is  a  continuance,  not  a  contradiction  of 
the  Natural.  Man  has  the  power  of  denying 
and  defying  both,  and  must  suffer  the  penalties 
of  his  denial  and  defiance  in  both  worlds.  He 
can  acknowledge  one  and  deny  the  other, 
and  abide  by  the  results  of  the  one  alone.  He 
can  embrace  both,  and  enjoy  the  blessings  of 
both. 

Love,  then,  not  human  but  Divine  love,  is  the 
only  antidote  to  the  fear  of  death.  Love  is  far 
above  all  things  phenomenal ;  the  heavenliest 
thing  to  be  sought  for  in  the  world  in  which  we 
now  live,  and  one  of  the  cardinal  doctrines  of 
the  Higher  Ministry  of  Nature.  Therefore  do 
I  thoroughly  disbelieve  in  whatever  rejects  it, 
whether  by  open  denial  or  by  unexpressed  im- 


EVOLUTION  OF  LIFE  BY  DEATH.  431 

plication.  I  so  read  Nature  as  to  learn  that  all 
natural  change,  which  results  from  decay  or 
death,  affords  me  a  freer  field  of  action,  and 
animates  me  with  the  hope  of  a  higher  life. 
Natural  changes,  however  slow,  lead  to  marked 
progress ;  to  enlarged  and  higher  conditions 
of  existence,  to  grander  evolutions.  If  Nature 
be  Evolution,  so  is  Death.  All  natural  know- 
ledge discovers  to  me  growth  within  growth, 
succession  to  higher  shapes ;  difference  and 
mutation  towards  higher  and  more  comprehen- 
sive order.  Many  things  may  appear  to  retro- 
grade ;  but  in  view  of  the  grand  whole  there 
is  progress,  enlargement,  and  improvement. 
There  is  an  element  everywhere  of  evil,  and  of 
imperfection  ;  but  imperfections  tend  to  elimi- 
nation, and  they  vanish  as  do  shadows  from  in- 
creasing light,  as  shadows  which  are  attendants 
upon  light,  yet  form  no  part  of  it.  Death  is  the 
shadow  of  life,  and  yet  is  no  essential  part  of  it, 
but  the  negation  of  it.  Life  like  light  will  emerge 
from  darkness  and  death,  and  shine  as  brightly 
as  if  it  had  never  known  an  attendant  shadow, 
a  concealing  cloud,  an  overpowering  night. 

As  far  as  respects  the  present  aspect  of 
things  around  us,  both  in  the  natural  and 
moral    world,    I    do    not    underestimate    the 


432    PHYSICAL  POWER  IN  THE   CATARACT. 


amount  and  the  power  of  evil  and  sin.  Both 
are  here,  and  both  are  mighty;  but  confining 
myself  as  closely  as  may  be  to  my  chosen  sub- 
ject, I  firmly  believe  in  the  truth  of  what  is 
above  advanced,  and  I  further  believe  that  a 
more  ample  and  more  capable  survey  of  even 
the  natural  world  would  display  goodness  pre- 
sently mighty,  as  well  as  rich  with  promise  for 
the  future. 

But,  alas  !  everywhere  evil  confronts  us  with 
its  hideous  visage,  while  goodness  is  forgotten 
in  the  horror  created  by  evil,  or  veiled  and 
unsought. 

When,  to  take  an  illustration  from  Nature, 
I  approach  a  great  cataract,  I  hear  from  afar, 
and  increasingly  as  I  draw  near  to  it,  the 
thunder  of  physical  power.  The  turbulent 
downfall  of  the  river  is  all  mere  force — 
mightiness  to  subdue  impediments,  and  to  de- 
scend to  the  dark  and  disturbed  depths  below. 
It  even  breaks  huge  rocks  asunder  ;  it  abrades, 
and  denudes,  and  misshapes  them  when  it  does 
not  hurl  them  away.  It  fills  the  air  with 
threatening  sounds,  and  the  eye  with  the 
visible  evidence  of  irresistibleness.  It  causes 
the  ground  underneath  to  tremble  ;  it  flings  up 
to   the  skies  mocking   and  defiant  spray.     It 


THE  CATARACT.  433 


makes  the  silence  of  the  night  ever  voiceful, 
and  eloquent  of  unceasing  power.  One  slum- 
bers within  hearing  of  its  thunder  in  troublous 
dreams.  Comes  there  no  glad  morning 
to  break  over  this  fearful  flood  ?  Will  no 
meridian  sun  span  it  with  an  arch  of  beauty 
and  of  hopefulness  ?  I  rise  from  my  broken 
rest,  and  I  go  forth  to  the  disturbing  waters. 
I  descend  to  the  falls,  and  discover  a  pro- 
jecting mass  of  rock,  and  as  I  stand  thereon, 
I  behold  the  light  of  a  radiant  morning  break- 
ing through,  and  seemingly  from  the  madly 
bounding  cataract.  Beams  of  soft  light  subtly 
interfold  themselves  with  the  responding  and 
reflecting  water-wreaths.  I  tarry  there  till  the 
sun  advances  and  gains  visible  predominance. 
I  bend  over  and  look  down  towards  the  boijinof 
rock  cauldron,  and  now  I  delight  my  eyes 
with  the  vision  of  an  over-spanning  iris,  small 
indeed  in  its  bow,  but  infinite  in  its  beauty. 
Lo !  a  smile  of  heavenly  love  irradiates  the 
stern  face  of  restless  and  resistless  power ! 

What  are  the  thoughts  and  analogies  that 
now  arise  in  the  quickened  imagination  ?  Here 
at  least  and  at  last  is  as  fair  an  image  as  the 
world  can  show  of  celestial  goodness  illumin- 
ating   and    adorning   earthly   law !       Heaven 

28 


434  THE  WATER-IRIS  AND  THE  FERN. 

has  smiled,  though  the  swift  waters  do  not 
a  moment  pause ;  though  the  water-thunder 
does  not  for  an  instant  die  into  silence ;  though 
not  a  rock  is  unabraded,  not  a  stone  is  spared. 

Do  you  object  that  these  objects  are  lifeless 
and  inorganic  ?  Well,  then,  gaze  only  on  this 
most  delicate  and  most  exquisite  of  ferns.  I 
gathered  it  from  the  top  of  yonder  rock, 
whence  no  moisture  exudes,  and  where  none 
abides  save  the  spray  dashed  upon  it  most 
plentifully  by  the  waterfall.  There  also  falls 
fitfully  the  light  of  the  sun,  the  same  light  that 
interweaves  itself  with  the  foaming  waters. 
Observe  that  the  menacing  and  mighty  cata- 
ract, the  subduer  of  rocks,  the  destroyer  of  all 
weak  things,  combines  wdth  the  still  mightier 
sun  in  aiding  the  growth  of  a  fragile  fern. 

Is  there  no  force  of  resistance  in  fragility 
to  power  ?  Have  we  no  token  of  radiant  love 
in  the  very  midst  of  overwhelming  forces  ?  The 
water-bow  answers,  the  fern  replies.  But  you 
must  embrace  the  fitting  moment  to  perceive 
the  one,  and  must  search  diligently  to  find 
the  other.  To  a  thousand  careless  and  hast}^ 
visitors  there  will  ever  appear  only  the  em- 
blem of  irresistible  law^ — the  desolation  of  a 
destroying  power. 


GLACIAL  SUGGESTIONS.  435 


He  who  wanders  alone  for  long  summer  days 
in  the  High  Alps,  who  dwells  by  choice  in  icy 
solitudes,  and  who  there  meditates  from  sunrise 
to  sunset  on  the  mysteries  of  life  and  death, 
will  be  likely  to  muse  longer  upon  the  latter 
than  the  former.  Personally  death  is  in- 
creasingly possible  to  him  as  he  traverses 
perilous  and  deeply  crevassed  glaciers  ;  per- 
sonally he  thinks  more  of  death  in  regions 
where  his  own  personality  is  a  presence 
exceptional  to  the  lifeless  solitude.  And 
those  immense  ice-cataracts  streaming  down 
from  lofty  summits  and  creeping  like  mes- 
sengers of  death  and  destruction  into  populous 
hamlets — what  are  they  but  the  most  signifi- 
cant natural  images  of  reigning  death 
-^schylus  has  sung  of  the  many  smiles  of 
the  wave-covered  ocean.  What  poet  will 
sing  of  the  many  frowns  on  the  face  of  the 
rigid  glacier  ?  The  many  smiles  wreathing  for 
ever  on  the  face  of  the  ocean  represent  the 
Poetry  of  Life.  On  the  glacier  the  cold  fixed 
frowns  typify  the  Power  of  Death. 

The  long-dreaded  approach  of  Death  ! 
What  is  it  under  Christian  light,  but  the  ap- 
proach of  one  who  will  merely  remove  us  and 
fit  us  to  be  removed  ?     Death  is  the  process  of 


436  THE  PAIN  OF  DISLODGEMENT. 

removal  from  house  to  home,  from  the 
crumbHng-  cottage,  the  half-lighted,  the  ever 
tumbling  tenement  of  an  impoverished  in- 
habitant, to  a  mansion  of  fitness  and  fineness, 
on  every  side  illumined  by  a  sun  that  never 
sets,  and  that  never  flings  its  last  feeble  rays 
in  presage  of  speedy  darkness.  True  the 
removal  is  intensely  painful.  I  must  one  day 
stand  at  the  outer  door  of  this  my  present 
poor  tenement,  well  knowing  its  wretchedness, 
its  unfitness,  its  decay;  and  I  shall  doubtless 
shudder,  with  unspeakable  aversion  to  the 
forcible  departure.  I  shall  cling  to  the  door- 
post, strive,  perhaps,  with  puerile  terror  to 
avoid 'the  inevitable  dislodgement  of  my  earthly 
hold.  I  shall  find  it  unsubstantial  in  my  grasp. 
What  then  ?  Let  me  now  in  health,  and  with 
some  power  of  reasoning,  familiarize  myself, 
despite  the  delusions  of  naturalistic  dreams  and 
visions,  with  the  truths  which  the  advanced 
knowledge  of  physical  and  psychological 
science  presents  to  a  cultivated  mind,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Christian  F'aith. 

I  know  that  I  must  die,  but  "•  Ahn  ovinis 
mortar  ^^ — all  of  me  will  not  perish.  My  body 
will  be  disintegrated,  will  be  destroyed.  It 
is   a   fleshly    body,    but    in    the    long    ages 


MAN'S  RESURRECTION.  437 

to  come  I  may  have  a  spiritual  body — ''  This 
corruptible  shall  put  on  incorruption."  The 
elementary  molecules  of  my  body  are  nor 
necessarily  subject  to  decay.  Dust  I  am  at 
the  best,  and  to  dust  I  shall  return  at  the 
worst  ;  and  that  last  dust  is  in  one  view 
preservable,  for  it  is  irreducible,  indestructible. 

The  fact  that  death  must  one  day  dislodo-e 
every  stone  which  life,  during  its  appointed 
term,  prevailed  to  build  up  in  my  earthly 
tenement,  is  undeniable,  and  was  foreseen  at  my 
birth — my  birth,  which  was  but  a  prophecy 
of  my  death.  Beyond  dislodgement,  however, 
death  cannot  go.  It  is  not  totally  destructive. 
Every  separated  atom  may  be  conserved,  as 
I  am  led  to  believe  by  Jesus  Christ,  who 
is  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life;  conserved 
as  dust  of  gold.  Golden  dust  never  ceases 
to  be  gold  ;  it  may  be  uncoined,  rasped  down, 
rolled  away  amidst  millions  of  grains  of 
desert  sand  ;  but  it  is  still  the  dust  of 
gold  and  never  loses  its  nature  or  its  value. 
That  same  dust  of  gold  may  be  regathered, 
and  recoined,  and  stamped  with  the  image 
and  superscription  of  the  King  of  Glory. 

Every  atom  of  my  present  body  periodically 
changes,  and  yet  I  preserve  the  same  personal 


438  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  BODY. 

identity.  The  form,  the  mould  are  still  the 
same,  though  molecules  are  differently  ar- 
ranged. Personally  I  am  ever  the  same  ;  atomi- 
cally  I  am  periodically  different.  Inexplicable 
corporeal  mystery,  daily  exhibited  in  millions 
of  living,  changing,  yet  identifiable  bodies  all 
over  the  inhabitable  earth  !  In  twenty  years 
not  one  human  being  is  atomically  the  same, 
yet  not  one  personally  different.  Well 
then,  is  it  not  conceivable  that  another  and 
similar  mystery  may  be  wrought  in  raising 
and  reconstructing  our  bodies  for  their  future 
sphere  of  spiritual  habitation  ?  The  transfor- 
mation may  not,  perhaps,  be  so  much  one 
of  reconstruction  as  one  of  recombination. 
The  same  indestructible  elements  may  be  re- 
combined  in  a  different  manner,  but  with  a 
preservation  of  the  means  of  self-identification. 
The  manner  of  combination  may  be  so  diverse 
that  it  will  be  evident  death  has  passed  over 
the  earthly  body,  but  the  whole  may  be  so 
similar  in  spiritual  personality  that  the  in- 
dividual shall  preserve  consciousness,  and  be 
sensible  of  perpetuated  identity.  Atoms,  forces, 
powers  have  never  been  lost,  not  even  in 
the  grave  ;  then  what  are  graves  but  separate 
storehouses  of  precious  atoms  ?    If  Christ  com- 


ESSENTIAL  PRESERVATION.  439 


pared  his  disciples  to  sheep,  not  one  of  whom 
could  ever  be  lost ;  not  one  of  whom  could  ever 
be  plucked  from  his  Father's  hand  ;  is  it  more 
than  this  to  say  that  not  one  esssential  con- 
stituent of  a  believer  in  Him  can  ever  be 
lost,  and  that  Death  cannot  pluck  it  out  of 
His  hand  ?  Beyond  this,  all  is  mystery,  but 
up  to  this  Science  together  with  Scripture, 
enable  us  to  advance,  and  to  advance  with 
a  confidence  which  the  one  and  the  other 
mutually  and  happily  corroborate.  Life  is 
swallowed  up  of  Death,  but  again  Death  is 
swallowed  up  of  Life,  and  the  second  Life 
will  be  eternal,  uncrossed  by  the  shadow  of  a 
second  Death  ! 

Change  then  by  death,  though  apparent  des- 
truction, is  real  elevation.  By  death  we  seem 
to  return  to  elementary  dust,  dust  motionless 
and  hopeless.  Yet  we  know  this  to  be  a  mere 
transition,  *a  mysterious,  and  at  present  inex- 
plicable metamorphosis.  Look,  however,  for 
an  illustration  and  a  prophecy,  at  insects,  and 
you  find  that  those  which  undergo  no  metamor- 
phosis can  never  acquire  wings.  Insects  there 
are  which  leave  the  ^g^  fully  formed,  and  only 
afterwards  increase  in  size.  Their  develop- 
ment is  effected  by  a  series  of  simple  transfer- 


440  METAPHORPHOSIS  OF  INSECTS. 

mations,  but  they  never  reach  the  condition  of 
the  perfect  insect ;  as  regards  external  charac- 
ters, they  remain  larvae  to  the  end  of  their  lives. 
So  were  man  never  to  see  death,  he  would 
remain  a  human  larva,  an  undeveloped  being 
for  ever.  But  since  all  insects  of  powerful 
flight,  and  such  as  can  remain  on  the  wing  for 
a  considerable  time,  pass  through  marked  and 
complete  metamorphoses,  so  man  in  order  to 
acquire  his  full  powers,  in  order  to  gain  his 
strongest  excursive  faculty,  must  pass  through 
the  metamorphosis  of  death.  If  he  would  ever- 
more crawl  and  be  close  to  the  clod,  let  him 
have  his  repeated  prayer  answered,  let  him  live 
always  as  he  now  lives,  on  the  earth.  This  is 
what  the  multitude  of  mankind  seem  to  wish 
and  pray  for ;  they  delude  themselves  by  dream- 
ing that  if  there  were  no  grave  for  the  body, 
then  there  would  be  no  permanent  wretched- 
ness ;  if  no  death,  no  dread ;  and*  prolonged 
and  laborious  life  would  be  prolonged  happi- 
ness. Could  they  have  their  wish,  they  would 
discover  their  delusion  and  deplore  their  destiny. 
If  the  clod-chained,  earth-creeping  insect  were 
endowed  with  consciousness,  and  could  feel 
envy,  how  would  it  look  up  enviously  from  its  low 
and  its  tardy  creeping,  to  the  crowd  of  meta- 


CHRISTIAN  FAITH  AT  DEATH.  441 

morphosed  insects  flying  and  delig-hting  in  the 
summer  sunbeams,  mounting  higher  and  yet 
higher  towards  light,  and  disporting  them- 
selves in  the  happiest  and  airiest  freedom  !  * 

At  the  gate  of  Death  our  Christian  Faith 
seems  to  many  but  a  feeble  power,  and  so  it  is 
unless  previously  nourished  and  strengthened 
by  all  suitable  alim.ent ;  without  this,  it  starves, 
pines,  and  perishes.  It  appears  to  be  like  a 
corporeal  element,  a  material  efflux  from  the 
brain,  a  passing  current  of  thought,  a  failing 
force  which  has  no  correlation  with  any  other 
force  than  the  failing  physical  life.  Common 
Faith,  the  Faith  of  the  general  community, 
what  is  it  ?  We  carry  it  about  with  us  through 
life  as  an  instinct  evolved  by  education.  We 
derive  it  possibly  from  our  parentage,  it  is  here- 
ditary. It  may  be  a  mere  mental  mode  of 
motion,  as  heat  is  a  physical  mode  of  motion. 
It  may  be  a  reHgious  electricity ;  another  mode 
of  that  prevalent  Spiritualism  which  is  asso- 
ciated with  phenomena  not  widely  accepted, 
not  commonly   approved,  and  certainly  at  the 

*  In  insects  the  existence  of  wings  and  their  functional  de- 
velopment are  closely  associated  with  metamorphosis.  They 
never  exist  in  the  larva,  nor  are  they  to  be  found  even  in  the 
nymph.  They  make  their  appearance  only  at  the  very  last 
stage  of  the  animal's  existence. — De  Qualrc/ages. 


442  CHRISTIAN  FAITH  AT  DEATH. 

best  more  closely  akin  to  the  Descent  than  the 
Ascent  of  man. 

The  thoughtful  believer  in  God  and  Christ 
makes  a  broad  distinction  between  his  faith  and 
the  faith  of  so-called  Spiritualists.  In  this 
sense,  Christians  are  not  to  be  confounded  and 
classed  with  Spiritualists. 

Christian  Faith,  feeble  as  it  Is  amongst  many- 
Christians,  is  the  only  triumph  over  bodily 
death.  Every  believer  bewails  its  weakness  in 
himself,  while  he  feels  it  to  be  his  only  per- 
sistent power.  Other  possessions  make  wings 
to  themselves  and  their  flight  is  speedy  and 
final.  The  believer  can  live  only  in  two  lights ; 
one  beams  from  the  sun  of  Nature,  from  things 
around  him  of  which  he  is  part ;  the  other  from 
things  above  him  and  beyond  him  of  which 
likewise  he  will  become  part ;  but  his  partici- 
pation in  these  latter  is  seldom  sufficiently 
clear,  seldomer  strongly  realized.  The  one  is 
the  Sun  of  his  day,  the  other  the  Moon  of  his 
night.  There  is  however  to  him  a  Moonrise  as 
well  as  a  Sunrise. 

Wandering  during  a  bright  autumnal  after- 
noon over  one  of  the  loftiest  chalk-cliff  downs 
in  our  island,  and  often  looking  out  over  the 
great  far-stretching  ocean    that  rolled  up  in 


SUNLIGHT  AND  COAST  SCENERY.         443 


monotonous  murmurs  to  the  foot  of  the  precipi- 
tous white  rock  walls,  on  the  top  of  which  he 
then  stood,  the  author  of  these  pages  was  im- 
pressed deeply  with  a  feeling  of  the  limitations  of 
all  human  knowledge.  Down  below,  some  eight 
hundred  feet  under  him,  and  for  many  miles  before 
him  was  the  vast  unsounded  sea.  High  up  above 
that  was  the  lofty  inaccessible  sky.  Immediately 
beneath  his  feet  were  solid  layers  upon  layers  of 
accumulated  and  piled-up  chalk.  He  beheld  the 
sea  and  the  sky  under  a  full  sunshine,  but 
he  knew  nothing  absolutely  of  what  was  In 
them,  of  what  was  below  them,  or  what  was 
above  them.  Even  of  the  visible  and  sea- 
derived  rock  underneath  him,  he  knew  little 
more  than  that  it  was  the  white  sepulchre  of 
countless  centuries,  the  mighty  monument  of 
unhistoric  ages,  the  dead  deposit  of  once 
boundlessly  swarming  life,  in  eras  of  an  anti- 
quity beyond  human  computation.  Full  blazing 
light  was  over  all,  but  light  was  not  in  all. 

Lingering  and  meditating  long  upon  the 
same  smooth-turfed  heights,  the  sun  slowly 
declined,  and  his  dying  beams  burnished  the 
ocean  with  a  splendour  which  never  seems  less 
grand  and  golden,  however  often  it  is  beheld. 
Speedily  afterwards  a  grayish  gloom  fell  on  sea 


444  DARKA^ESS  AND  MOONLIGHT. 


and  shore,  escarpment,  and  turf-down ;  and  a 
silence  unbroken  even  by  the  bleat  of  sheep, 
came  down  upon  the  entire  scene.  How  sug- 
gestive of  the  leaden  shadows  of  Death  settling 
upon  the  broad  expanse  of  human  inquiries  and 
human  knowledge,  after  a  life  of  active  and  pro- 
longed research  into  the  meaning  of  things  and 
the  mystery  of  our  existence  !  Does  all  end  in 
like  darkness  ?  Does  all  light  fa,de,  and  show 
its  most  brilliant  colours  just  in  the  act  and 
outspreading  of  departure,  as  some  gorgeously 
plumed  bird,  whose  feathers  are  gaudiest  when 
iintolded  in  act  to  fly  away  from  the  gaze  of 
man  ?  Is  there  nothing  before  us  but  the  long 
and  weary  night  of  sleep,  or  wakeful  doubt  ? 

While  thus  musing,  in  the  distance  an  un- 
looked-for brightness  flashed  up  from  behind 
a  distant  hill.  At  first  it  surprised  and 
excited  enquiry.  Was  it  a  great  conflagra- 
tion ?  Soon,  however,  the  softer  glory  of  our 
Lesser  Luminary  surmounted  that  distant  hill 
and  fell,  as  if  in  one  gentle  fountain  flow,  upon 
the  face  of  the  waters  ;  and  spread  over  them  a 
beam  so  tender,  so  attractive,  and  yet  seemingly 
so  shrinking  and  reserved,  that  the  tremulous- 
ness  of  the  whitened  waves  appeared  fitly  to 
correspond  to  the  moonlight.     Was  not  this  a 


SUGGESTED  ANALOGIES.  445 

Faith -like  beam?  It  was  not  the  flashing 
burnishing  beam  of  sun-like  knowledge  ;  it  was 
not  cloudless  and  unquestionable  truth  ;  it  was 
the  ray  of  Faith  that  befits  darkness  yet  dispels 
doubt.  It  was  the  beam  that  is  most  timely, 
parting  the  shadows  of  death.  It  did  not 
dazzle  like  the  sun,  nor  like  the  sun  did  it  fail 
at  the  approach  of  sorrow  and  in  the  melancholy 
of  desertion. 

But  lo !  the  feeble  ray  becomes  strong,  the 
trembling. light  becomes  mighty,  and  spreads 
out  broadly  over  the  gladdened  waves,  and  the 
Lesser  Luminary  now  mounts  the  sky,  and  goes 
up  joyously  upon  her  fleecy  cloud-way,  and  as- 
sumes her  nocturnal  throne;  and  welcoming 
skies  above,  and  resplendent  waters  below,  hail 
the  Queen  of  Night  with  an  alacrity  not  inferior 
to  that  with  which  they  once  hailed  the  departed 
King  of  Day.  Now  the  line  of  far  chalk  cliffs 
grows  dimly  white  again  ;  the  scanty  sails  of 
slow  ships  reappear  on  the  softly  illumined 
horizon,  and  all  is  again  glorious  and  grand  ! 

So  may  it  be  at  last  with  the  true  and 
trusting  soul  of  man.  The  lesser  luminary  of 
Faith  may  become  gradually  as  royal  as  the 
lost  luminary  of  slowly  fading  and  forgotten 
knowledq-e.      The  vast  dreaded  sea  of  death 


446  SUGGESTED  ANALOGIES, 


may  spread  out  before  the  dying  man,  not 
flashing  under  the  all-revealing  sunlight,  yet 
not  wholly  clouded  by  the  all-concealing 
shadows  of  night.  Subdued  tender  beams  may 
begin  to  broaden  over  it,  and  its  unknown 
waters  may  be  so  softly  touched  with  the 
ever- widening  light  that  natural  fears  may  be 
lessened,  and  the  parting  spirit  may  be  enabled 
to  contemplate  the  awful  ocean  before  it 
without  terror,  and  even  with  believing  peace. 


IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL.  447 


XX. 

IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  HUMAN  SOUL. 

^  I  ""HE  prime  distinction  of  the  doctrine  of  our 
■^  immortality  is  that  it  is  personal.  God  is 
a  personality,  and  equally  so  must  be  the  soul 
which  he  made  in  his  own  likeness  of  person- 
ality. The  immortality  of  the  soul  may  there- 
fore be  termed  Incorporeal  Personality. 

As  a  doctrine  of  Holy  Scripture  this  rests 
upon  sufficient  grounds,  although  it  is  remark- 
able how  little  is  revealed  directly  concerning 
it  even  there.  Although  the  soul  {NephesJi)  is 
spoken  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  times  in  the 
Old  Testament,  yet  it  is  rarely  referred  to  in 
the  sense  of  a  disembodied  person.  In  the  New 
Testament  the  soul  (^i^x*?)  is  mentioned  about 
fifty  times,  not  in  many  instances  with  direct 
reference  to  its  separate  existence,  although  the 
instances  in  which  it  is  so  regarded  are  of  a 
decisive  character.*     The  strongest  proof  of 

*  See  Luke  xii.  20  ;  Matt.  xvi.  26  ;  Matt.  x.  48  ;  i  Thess- 
V.  23  ;  Heb.  iv.  12  ;  Rev.  vi.  9  ;  xx.  4. 


448  IMMORTAL  PERSONALITY. 


human  resurrection  rests  upon  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  these  are 
involved  the  separation  and  reunion  of  his 
body  and  his  souL  The  whole  teaching  of 
Scripture  and  of  Theism  is  distinctly  founded 
on  the  idea  of  a  conscious,  immortal,  and  re- 
sponsible soul. 

Immortality  without  personality,  is  immortal- 
ity without  consciousness,  and  most  material- 
ists will  in  some  sort  admit  that.  Matter  is 
pronounced  indestructible,  and  thus  we  have 
an  immortality  of  matter.  Force  is  likewise 
indestructible,  being  only  convertible,  and 
thus  we  have  an  immortality  of  force.  The 
Pantheists  also  will  admit  it,  for  he  who  is  of 
one  substance  with  the  all-substance  is  in  their 
view  immortal.  Hence  there  may  be  a  play 
upon  the  word,  widely  different  from  an  assent 
to  the  Christian  doctrine  of  immortality,  which 
centres  in  the  perpetuity  of  personal  conscious- 
ness. Man  may  conceive  of  his  individual 
substance  being  perpetuated  under  such  modi- 
fications as  would  render  it  indifferent  to  him. 
The  chief  condition  of  its  value  is  his  conscious 
personality. 

Absorption  into  a  universal  substance  is  not 
much  superior  to  annihilation.     Science  tells  us 


IMMORTALITY  OF  CONSTITUENTS.  449 

that  all  compounded  existences  dissolve  without 
the  annihilation  of  their  component  parts.  Ac- 
cept this  teaching,  but  will  the  non-annihilation, 
the  re-distribution  of  component  parts,  include 
consciousness  ?  If  not,  we  are  flung  back  upon 
sheer  Materialism,  or  Pantheism,  and  the  colour 
of  the  creed  will  not  considerably  affect  the 
coldness  and  the  uncongeniality  of  the  con- 
clusion. 

So  far  as  Nature  can  teach  or  confirm  the 
doctrine  of  human  immortality,  it  does  so  in 
the  indestructibility  and  conservation  of  force. 
Science  has  established  that  nothing  is  lost  in 
the  material  sphere,  however  frequently  it  may 
be  changed.  Hence  though  the  human  body 
is  not  immortal  in  its  earthly  form,  it  may  be 
immortal  in  its  constitutive  elements.  These 
are  indestructible,  and  may  successively  enter 
into  new  vital  combinations  without  limit.  As  to 
the  soul  originally  inhabiting  this  body,  physical 
teaching  is  silent ;  to  it  we  may  add  a  negation 
or  an  affirmation  of  the  separate  existence  of 
the  soul,  but  the  affirmation  is  founded  upon 
a  distinct  revelation  and  belief.  In  such  in- 
quiries we  rely  on  certain  intuitions  of  the  mind 
out  of  the  range  of  physics. 

The    persistence  of  force,    therefore,   helps, 

29 


AKQ  PANTHEISTIC  IMMORTALITY. 

though  it  by  no  means  establishes  our  views  of 
personal  immortality.  Nor  is  some  such  doctrine, 
as  we  have  said,  excluded  even  from  the  higher 
forms  of  Pantheism,  consistently  with  which  it 
may  be  affirmed  that  the  soul  cannot  die,  can- 
not cease  to  exist,  since  the  idea  of  an  extinction 
of  a  substance,  of  its  being  nothing,  is  unphilo- 
sophical.  The  soul's  continuance  may  be  in- 
volved in  endless  transformations,  during  which 
its  imagined  personality  may  be  lost,  while  its 
actual  substance  is  preserved. 

"  The  more  I  try  to  penetrate"  says  M.  Caro 
fL' Idee  de  DieuJ  "  into  the  inner  thought  of  the 
Pantheists,  the  more  assured  I  am  that  the 
name  of  immortality  has  but  one  sense  for 
them,  a  sense  altogether  particular,  and  so 
different  from  the  ordinary  usage  of  the  word, 
that  one  might  say  it  is  even  its  contrary.  The 
immortality  of  the  Pantheist  is  not  relegated  to 
a  chimerical  future,  hidden  in  the  uncertainties 
of  death.  It  is  actual,  realizable  at  every  in- 
stant by  us.  It  is  not  a  form  of  future  life,  but 
a  form  of  the  present.  It  realizes  itself  on  one 
sole  condition,  that  of  associating  ourselves  in 
thought  with  the  eternity  of  the  great  Principle, 
with  the  absolute  of  the  Substance.  One  im- 
mortality for  each  of  us  accomplishes  itself  here 


PANTHEISTIC  IMMORTALITY.  451 

below,  by  our  participation  in  the  Absolute,  the 
Divine.  It  is  puerile  to  seek  for  eternal  life  in 
any  other  time,  or  any  other  mode.  The  true 
time  of  immortality  is  the  present  life, — the 
true  seat  of  immortality  is  our  soul.  Heaven  ? 
it  is  our  reason  when  we  think  of  the  Absolute. 
We  become  immortal  when  our  thought,  esca- 
ping from  the  world  of  contingency,  attaches 
itself  to  its  principle,  and  enjoys,  by  a  kind  of 
communication,  a  consciousness  of  the  necessity 
of  its  eternity.  To  know  its  dependence,  to 
feel  itself  sustained  as  it  were  and  cradled  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Eternal  Substance,  to  draw  all 
its  strength  and  all  its  pride  from  its  relation 
to  the  Absolute — which  for  a  moment  holds  our 
wretched  personality  suspended  over  the  abyss 
of  nothingness — this  is  the  only,  the  true  im- 
mortality promised  to  us.  All  the  forms  under 
which  humanity  conceives  of  a  future  life  are 
nothing  but  the  wanderings  of  imagination  and 
the  dreams  of  infancy.  This  is  enough  to 
content  us  if  we  are  true  men.  Each  has  the 
immortality  he  merits.  That  which  consti- 
tutes in  each  of  us  this  immortality,  is  that 
which  fixes  its  degree ;  it  is  precisely  the  per- 
fection to  which  we  elevate  ourselves.  He  is 
fully  immortal  who  the  best  realizes  the  Divine 


452  PANTHEISTIC  IMMORTALITY. 

in  his  life  and  thought,  by  science  or  by  virtue. 
Whatever  of  good  his  life  contains,  whatevei 
of  truth  his  thought  holds,  it  is  precisely  that 
which  establishes  his  participation  with  the 
eternal.  The  measure  of  this  knowledge  and 
of  this  virtue  is  then  the  measure  of  im- 
mortality." 

This  view  is  held  as  counteractive  of  the 
Stoical  conception.  Those  who  commit  base 
actions,  have  low  thoughts,  vulgar  inclinations, 
and  selfish  satisfactions  only — these  men  exile 
themselves  from  God.  It  is  not  God  who 
exiles  them  from  Himself.  At  every  step  they 
take  away  from  truth,  their  thought  is  darkened, 
their  taste  depraved,  and  their  last  degree  of 
misery  is  to  have  the  desire  for  the  Divine 
extinguished  in  them.  Such  a  state  is  a  life 
in  time,  but  a  veritable  death. 

Obviously  this  doctrine  cannot  be  reconciled 
with  Spinoza,  who  formally  asserts  that  after 
the  dissolution  of  the  bodily  organs,  neither 
imagination  or  memory  can  exist,  and  by 
excluding  memory  from  any  share  in  a  future 
life  he  destroys  the  conditions  of  a  personal 
immortality. 

Leibnitz  reasons  thus: — **  Our  soul  is  a  sub- 
stance :  now  no  substance  can  entirely  perish 


VIEWS   OF  LEIBNITZ  AND  BUTLER.  453 

except  by  a  miracle  of  annihilation.  And  as 
the  soul  has  no  parts,  it  is  not  possible  that  it 
should  be  dissolved  into  separate  substances ; 
therefore  the  soul  is  naturally  immortal." 
Again  in  one  of  his  letters,  he  says,  ''  The  I,  or 
principle  of  unity,  is  a  thing  that  cannot  perish 
either  in  us  or  in  brutes.  For  to  perish  always 
implies  dissolution  :  now  the  principle  of  unity 
being  without  composition,  is  incapable  of 
dissolution." 

Butler  also  in  his  Analogy  (chap,  i.)  reasons 
at  length  in  the  same  direction — *'  All  pre- 
sumption of  death's  being  the  destruction  of 
living  beings,  must  go  upon  supposition,  that 
they  are  compounded,  and  so  discerptible. 
But  since  consciousness  is  a  single  and  in- 
divisible power,  it  should  seem  that  the  subject 
in  which  it  resides,  must  be  so  too.  For  were 
the  motion  of  any  particle  of  matter  one  and 
indivisible,  so  that  it  should  imply  a  contra- 
diction to  suppose  part  of  this  motion  to 
exist,  and  part  not  to  exist,  i.e.,  part  of  this 
matter  to  move,  and  part  to  be  at  rest ;  then 
its  power  of  motion  would  be  indivisible ;  and 
so  also  would  the  subject  in  which  the  power 
inheres,  namely  the  particle  of  matter ;  for 
if  this  could   be  divided    into   two,  one   part 


454  BUTLER'S  ARGUMENT. 

might  be  moved  and  the  other  at  rest,  which 
is  contrary  to  the  supposition.  In  like  manner 
it  has  been  argued,  and  for  anything  appearing 
to  the  contrary,  justly,  that  since  the  percep- 
tion and  consciousness  which  we  have  of  our  own 
existence,  is  indivisible,  so  as  that  it  is  a  con- 
tradiction to  suppose  one  part  of  it  to  be  here, 
and  the  other  there ;  the  perceptive  power,  or 
t  e  power  of  consciousness  is  indivisible  too: 
and  consequently  the  subject  in  which  it  resides, 
i.e.  the  conscious  Being.  Now  upon  sup- 
position, that  living  agent  each  man  calls  him- 
self, is  thus  a  single  being,  which  there  is  at 
least  no  more  difficulty  in  conceiving  than  in 
conceiving  it  to  be  a  compound,  and  of  which 
there  is  the  proof  now  mentioned,  it  follows 
that  our  organized  bodies  are  no  more  our- 
selves, or  part  of  ourselves,  than  any  other 
matter  around  us.  And  it  is  as  easy  to  con- 
ceive how  matter,  which  is  no  part  of  our- 
selves, may  be  appropriated  to  us  in  the  man- 
ner in  which  our  present  bodies  are ;  as  how 
we  can  receive  impressions  from  and  have 
power  over  any  matter.  It  is  as  easy  to  con- 
ceive how  we  may  exist  out  of  bodies  as  in 
them  :  that  we  might  have  animated  bodies  of 
any  other  organs,  and  senses  wholly  different 


WOLLASTON  AND  DREW,  455 

from  those  now  given  us  :  and  that  we  may 
hereafter  animate  these  same  or  new  bodies 
variously  modified  and  organized,  as  to  conceive 
how  we  can  animate  such  bodies  as  our  present. 
And  lastly,  the  dissolution  of  all  these  several 
organized  bodies,  supposing  ourselves  to  have 
successively  animated  them,  would  have  no 
more  conceivable  tendency  to  destroy  the  living 
beings,  ourselves,  or  deprive  us  of  living  facul- 
ties, the  faculties  of  perception  and  of  action, 
than  the  dissolution  of  any  foreign  matter, 
which  we  are  capable  of  receiving  impressions 
from,  and  making  use  of  for  the  common  oc- 
currences of  life." 

In  his  now  neglected  book,  ''  The  Religion  of 
Nature  Delineated,"  Wollaston  offered  several 
forcible  arguments  in  proof  of  the  immateriality 
and  immortality  of  the  soul ;  and  these  are  as 
sound  and  as  applicable  to  the  contrary  sup- 
positions of  our  day,  as  of  his.  Add  to  these, 
the  detailed  and  remarkably  coherent  and  con- 
vincing treatise  of  a  Cornish  writer,  of  late 
times,  Samuel  Drew,  and  we  have  in  all  a  body 
of  argumentative  support  of  his  doctrine  now 
under  consideration,  as  such  a  subject  can 
receive. 

On  the  whole   there   are  abundant   natural 


456  CORROBORATIONS  FROM  SCIENCE, 

corroborations  of  the  soul's  immortality  with 
personal  consciousness,  and  the  proofs  of  this 
dogma  are  not  weakened  by  any  scientific  dis- 
coveries, but  rather  strengthened  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Conservation  of  Force.  Should 
this  favourite  doctrine  of  Modern  Science  ever 
be  proved  unfounded,  the  old  arguments  remain 
in  their  original  strength  ;  should  it  be  indubit- 
ably established,  they  will  be  so  much  the  more 
augmented ;  and  the  whole  taken  together  will 
assume  a  cumulative  character. 


CONTINUITY   OF  OUR  KNOWLEDGE.        457 


XXI. 

THE     CONTINUITY    OF    OUR     KNOWLEDGE 
OF  GOD  IN  NATURE, 

^  I  ^HE  modern  estimate  of  the  worth  of  the 
-^  various  kinds  or  branches  of  knowledge 
which  men  can  acquire,  is  based  upon  the  profit- 
able uses  to  which  they  may  be  turned,  and  the 
duration  of  such  uses.  More  than  ever  in  our 
time  is  the  value  of  knowledge  determined  by 
these  tests.  Men,  in  general,  no  longer  esteem 
learning  because  it  is  recondite,  or  because  it 
demands  long  years  for  its  acquisition.  They 
are  growingly  disposed  to  measure  its  value  by 
its  immediate  fruits  and  by  its  readily  available 
issues.  Hence  a  mere  knowledge  of  words,  of 
grammar,  of  dead  languages,  of  Greek  and 
Latin  versification,  and  of  symbols  and  media 
of  thought,  rather  than  of  thought  itself,  is 
rapidly  and  extensively  falling  in  public  esteem. 
Even    some    professional     teachers     of    such 


458        CONTINUITY  OF  OUR  KNOWLEDGE. 

learning  are  now  among-st  the  foremost  and 
most  earnest  in  their  repudiation  of  a  forced 
and  disproportionate  instruction  in  these  ac- 
complishments. 

We  observe,  too,  at  the  present  time,  a 
general  consciousness  of  the  ignorance  of 
otherwise  well-educated  persons  concerning 
the  Philosophy  of  Nature.  Especially  has 
the  public  feeling  been  aroused  on  our 
need  of  Technical  and  Scientific  Education, 
and  it  has  been  shown  in  great  detail,  and  by 
irrefragable  evidence,  that  the  vast  mass  of 
our  skilled  workmen  are  deficient  in  proper 
knowledge  of  the  Science  on  which  manufac- 
turing processes  depend.  I  have  elsewhere 
affirmed,  "  That  no  country  in  the  world  ap- 
proaching to  England  in  manufacturing  emi- 
nence is  so  radically  deficient  in  special  in- 
dustrial education.  Broadly  viewed,  the  whole 
system  of  Technical  Education  has,  at  this  late 
date,  to  take  root  and  grow  in  our  soil."  * 

Reducing  the  various  Knowledges  to  the 
test  of  their  actual  worth  to  men,  and  their 
effective  value  in  life,  we  may  claim  the  highest 
place  for  that  Knowledge  of  Nature,  which  we 

*  Edinburgh  Review,  April  1868  ;  Article  on"  Technical  and 
Scientific  Education." 


CONTINUITY  OF  OUR  KNOWLEDGE.        459 

are  advocating  in  this  volume,  and  claim  it  on 
the  grounds  herein  stated.  No  kind  of  knowledge 
is  more  elevating,  more  purifying,  and  more  in- 
vigorating to  the  soul.  But  the  particular  topic, 
on  which  I  now  venture  more  especially  to  dwell, 
is  a  speculative  conjecture  on  the  probable  Con- 
tinuity  of  this  kind  of  Knowledge  in  a  future  state. 
Having  previously  and  passingly  touched  upon 
this  topic,  it  may  be  here  separately  treated. 

All  varieties  of  Knowledge  excepting  that 
which  relates  to  a  recognition  of  God  and  the 
soul  of  man,  will  (in  the  terms  of  conjecture) 
die  together  with  the  human  body.  And  this 
seems  probable  and  reasonable,  because  all 
knowledge  which  exclusively  pertains  to  the 
concerns  of  the  present  life,  and  to  our  physical 
condition  in  it,  can  have  no  significance  beyond 
it.  We  acquire  such  information  slowly,  labo- 
riously ;  and  at  the  various  states  and  ages  of 
life  at  which  we  require  it.  We  apply  it  in 
action  as  we  need  it,  and  as  soon  as  we  need 
it  not,  it  gradually  falls  from  our  grasp,  and 
becomes  as  uncertain  as  it  is  unnecessary.  It 
is  one  among  the  many  touching  failures  of 
aged  humanity  that  those  powers  which  were 
once  so  mighty  to  subdue  mental  difficulties, 
and  those  faculties  which  were  once  so  ready 


46o        CONTINUITY  OF  OUR  KNOWLEDGE, 

to  retain  hard-earned  results  of  thought,  finally 
suffer  them  to  pass  away  like  a  dream,  and  to 
dissolve  into  the  blankness  of  forgetful  senes- 
cence. He  who  should  stand  in  a  large  and 
richly-furnished  picture  gallery,  and  delight 
himself  for  many  hours  in  contemplating  por- 
traits and  landscapes  of  the  greatest  men  and 
the  fairest  scenes,  and  then  see  the  sunlight 
slowly  lessening  at  evening,  and  every  depicted 
face  and  form  gradually  becoming  dimmer  and 
darker,  until  at  last  every  painting  died  out  in 
obscurity,  might  aptly  be  compared  to  the 
studious  and  deeply  learned  man,  who,  in  the 
decrepitude  of  his  last  days  sees  nothing  of  all 
the  bright  and  varied  pictures  which  once 
adorned  his  mental  palace  of  phantasy,  and  is 
painfully  conscious  that  all  have  faded  from  his 
memory,  as  though  they  had  never  found  a 
lodgment  there. 

If  we  may  speculate  on  the  kind  of  Know- 
ledge likely  to  be  resumed  in  the  life  to  come, 
and  to  be  continued  as  an  important  element 
of  it,  we  may  fairly  assume  that  it  will  be  chiefly 
that  which  bears  direct  reference  to  such  future 
life.  If  any  threads  are  to  be  taken  up  from 
the  web  of  earthly  history,  and  to  be  w^oven  into 
the  endless  web  of  eternal  history,  they  can  only 


CONTINUITY  OF  OUR  KNOWLEDGE.        461 

be  such  as  are  suitable  to  the  future  texture. 
Whatever  skill  has  been  necessary  to  our  several 
occupations  in  this  present  state,  whatever  pro- 
fessional lore  we  may  have  accumulated  during 
years  of  study,  will  probably  perish  with  the 
body,  and  will  never  again  be  in  active  use,  even 
if  the  past  should  remain  in  our  recollection. 

Supposing,  however,  that  a  Knowledge  of 
God  as  he  is  manifested  to  us  in  Nature  is  an 
element  in  our  future  condition,  and  an  integral 
part  of  our  joy,  we  shall  at  once  perceive  the 
probability  of  a  resumption  of  many  trains  of 
thought  which  have  passed  through  our  minds 
as  reverent  students  of  the  Natural  world. 
As  we  can  conceive  of  nothing,  naturally 
speaking,  which  would  so  delight  the  pure  and 
ardent  intellects  of  Christian  philosophers  here, 
as  an  enlargement  of  the  sphere  of  their  clear 
insight  into  Nature,  so  we  can  conceive  of  no 
employment  more  congenial  to  their  liberated 
spirits,  than  an  unfettered  continuance  of  the 
same  or  similar  exercises  of  thought,  in  an 
unlimited  sphere  of  sinless  spirituality. 

What  are  the  assemblages  of  men  upon 
earth,  which  now  appear  most  blamelessly 
occupied,  most  united  in  admirable  oneness, 
and  most  desirable  to  perfect  and  perpetuate  } 


462        HIGHEST  AND  PUREST  SOCIETIES, 

Are  they  not  those  which  we  join  in  the  earthly 
temples  of  the  most  High  God,  where  He  and 
Jesus  Christ  His  Son  are  simply  but  sincerely 
worshipped  and  praised  ?  Who  that  has  fre- 
quently taken  part  in  such  acts  of  worship  does 
not  remember  them  as  amongst  the  most 
pleasurable  as  well  as  holiest  seasons  of  life  ? 
Especially,  who  that  has  taken  part  in  some 
of  those  grand  unartistic  strains  of  psalmody, 
which  swell  from  the  combined  voices  of  many 
hundreds  of  singers,  does  not  again  and  again 
hear  them  resounding  in  memory,  and  calling 
back  thoughts  of  Him  to  whom  they  were 
directed  ? 

There  are  other  assemblages  on  earth  to 
which  the  same  observations  would  in  a  more 
limited  sense  apply, — namely,  those  which  are 
gathered  to  listen  to  some  adept  in  Natural 
Science,  when  he  expounds  and  makes  plain  a 
new  discovery,  or  an  interesting  application  of 
an  already  known  truth.  Who  that  has  listened 
to  Faraday,  on  one  of  those  well-known  occa- 
sions when  he  devoted  an  hour  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  a  miscellaneous  assembly  in  some  of  the 
great  facts  of  Science,  and  has  witnessed  the 
unfailing  and  eager  attention  of  the  crowded 
audience  to  the  unfolding  of  Natural  Pheno- 


HIC^HEST  AND   PUREST  SOCIETIES.  463 


mena,  has  not  felt  that  this  also  was  a  noble 
assemblage — of  another,  yet  a  congenial  cha- 
racter,— of  willing  listeners  to  a  gifted  teacher  ? 
Who  has  not  felt  that  here  also  was  the  commu- 
nication of  a  knowledge  which  would  not  perish, 
for  it  was  knowledge  that  conducted  ultiuiatcly 
to  God. 

Now  conceive  the  two  kinds  of  assemblages 
just  noticed  to  be  united  in  one,  and  that  they 
are  standing  upon  a  far  higher  level  of  know- 
ledge and  observation.  Conceive  them  to  be 
disembodied,  delivered  from  many  difficulties 
incident  to  terrestrial  life,  possessed  of  purged 
hearts  and  far-reaching  vision,  endowed  with 
large  capacities,  and,  ranging  in  free  thought 
over  previously  unsuspected  fields  of  Know- 
ledge. Conceive  that  as  the  issue  of  all  their 
enlargement  of  thought,  and  their  clearness 
of  perception  of  the  relations  of  developed 
truths,  they  continually  ascribe  praise  to  the 
Author  of  Nature,  and  that  ever  as  they  learn, 
they  praise.  Conceive  this,  and  surely  it  is 
readily  conceivable ;  and  what  is  then  wanting 
to  the  happy  employment  of  pure  spirits,  and 
to  the  conviction  that  the  continuity  of  earth's 
highest  and  best  Knowledge  will  manifest  itself 
in  the  final  abode  of  the  blessed  ! 


464  REVERSE   OPINION  UNTENABLE. 

Imagine  for  a  moment  the  reverse  ;  imagine 
that  all  our  knowledge  of  Nature  acquired  on 
earth,  will  be  extim?-uished  at  death,  and  that  all 
the  conceptions  which  great  and  good  students, 
like  Newton  and  Faraday,  have  obtained  of 
God  by  a  life-long  study  of  some  parts  of  the 
creation,  perish  with  their  bodies  and  are  as 
fruitless  as  though  they  had  never  been  formed. 
Imagine  that  our  Knowledge  of  God  in  Nature 
has  no  issues  whatever  beyond  the  present  life ; 
that  the  threads  of  this  knowledge  are  snapped 
asunder  by  death  like  the  threads  of  life ;  and 
then  the  violence  done  to  all  the  instincts  of 
our  higher  nature,  is  at  once  a  proof  of  the  un- 
soundness of  this  view.  We  feel  intuitively 
that,  if  there  be  life  beyond  the  grave,  there 
is  a  Nature  of  some  kind  likewise  beyond  it; 
and  if  there  be  a  Higher  Ministry  of  Nature 
here,  the  Celestial  Nature  will  exercise  a  still 
higher  ministry  there.  Continuity  of  Life  will 
necessarily  bring  with  it  continuity  of  Know- 
ledge, and  this  will  be  a  perpetual  continuity 
of  Knowledge,  for  if  Nature  be  immensely  ex- 
tended, so  will  be  our  knowledge  of  it.  For 
all  who  love  God  there  may  be  a  ceaseless 
Evolution  of  knowledge,  and  corresponding 
objects  of  knowledge. 


CONThNUITY  INTERMINABLE.  465 

A  knowledge  of  God  co-extensive  with  all 
that  can  be  known  of  Him  by  natural  mani- 
festation, would  be  an  unspeakably  blessed 
reward,  and  perhaps  in  its  full  measure  will  be 
beyond  the  attainment  of  the  noblest  of  in- 
tellects. Yet  various  degrees  of  such  know- 
ledge may  correspond  to  varieties  of  future 
rewards.  Although  we  are  not  in  this  book 
treating  directly  of  the  manifestations  of  God 
in  Grace;  nevertheless  it  may  be  observed  that 
if  attainments  in  grace  and  knowledge  be  sim- 
ultaneous, and  if  in  fact  grace  and  knowledge 
be  correlated,  then  the  continuity  of  advance 
in  knowing,  amongst  the  highest  orders  of  re- 
deemed spirits,  will  be  interminable. 

Is  it  presumption  to  suggest  that  as  there 
is  a  correlation  of  forces  or  natural  powers  on 
earth,  by  which  we  understand  all  such  forces 
to  be  mutually  resolvable,  and  thus  arrive  at 
a  unity  of  power ;  so  it  is  possible  that  in  the 
future  state  of  felicity,  all  our  spiritual  powers 
may  be  correlated,  and  all  may  be  resolvable 
into  the  knowledge  of  God  by  outward  or  recog- 
nized manifestations  of  His  attributes  ?  We 
speak  of  Knowledge,  Faith,  Hope,  Peace,  Joy, 
as  distinct,  and  it  is  the  only  manner  in 
which    we   can  speak  while  on   earth    of  the 

30 


466  SPIRITUAL  CONSERVATION. 

blessed  fruits  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  In  the  same 
manner  we  speak  of  Light,  Sound,  Heat,  Cold, 
as  distinct  physical  forces,  for  this  once  appeared 
to  be  the  only  mode  in  which  we  could  know 
them.  But  as  we  are  now  taught  that  these 
physical  forces  are  all  correlated  and  convertible 
into  one  solar  force,  shall  we  not  suppose 
that  the  same  may  be  predicated  of  the  soul's 
spiritual  powers  ?  All  these  may  be  but  modes 
of  knowing  and  of  experiencing  or  expressing 
our  knowledge  of  God.  As  the  correlation  of 
natural  forces  is  one  of  the  latest  and  ripest 
generalizations  of  our  earthly  Science,  so  may 
this  correlation  of  spiritual  forces  and  ca- 
pacities be  an  after-fruit  of  the  after  life. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Conservation  of  Force 
sugg-ests  to  us  another  and  similar  analogy. 
No  physical  energy  is  lost ;  no  matter  is  des- 
troyed ;  there  is  unceasing  transformation,  but 
no  destruction.  Is  it  likewise  so  in  spiritual 
energies?  Probably  no  Faith,  no  Hope,  no  Joy, 
are  ever  lost;  probably  each  one  is  only  trans- 
formed, never  destroyed.  If  God  has  filled 
our  terrestrial  dwelling-place  with  forces  and 
forms  of  matter  which  are  ever  in  course  of 
change  and  conversion,  yet  never  in  diminution, 
if  in   the  waters   of  our  seemingly    boundless 


SPIRITUAL  CORRELATIONS.  467 

oceans  not  one  drop  Is  absolutely  destroyed ; 
if  no  particle  of  our  apparently  limitless  lands 
is  subtracted  ;  shall  we  err  in  concluding  that 
no  infinitely  more  precious  sentiment  of  a  holy 
soul  is  ever  destroyed  ? — Faith  ?  It  may  be  only 
a  requisite  for  our  earthly  condition,  but  it  will 
not  be  destroyed  when  it  is  converted  into 
knowledge.  Hope  ?  This  may  here  be  only 
dependent  on  doubt,  but  it  is  not  destroyed 
while  it  continues  to  be  a  correlate  with 
Faith.  Love  ?  This  assuredly  is  not  extin- 
guished but  exalted  when  converted  into 
knowledge.  Joy  ?  What  is  this  but  the  fruit 
of  the  possession,  the  conscious  possession  of 
knowledge.  "" EurcJza  I  Eureka  /"  was  the  ex- 
ultant exclamation  of  the  philosopher  who  had 
secured  one  small  portion  of  knowledge.  If 
such  was  his  joy  over  a  petty  acquisition  of  a 
fractional  part,  what  will  be  the  joy  of  the  beati- 
fied spirit,  when  it  arrives  at  the  conscious 
possession  of  the  whole  ?  Thus  then,  it  is  pos- 
sible that  all  the  most  blessed  spiritual  gifts 
may  be  correlative  with  and  convertible  into 
expanding  Knowledge. 

Another  and  principal  element  in  this  happy 
continuity  v/ill  be  the  fellowship  of  the  noblest 
minds   of  men   of  all   ages   and  countries  on 


468    FELLOWSHIP  OF  THE  NOBLEST  MINDS. 

earth,  and  our  Introduction  into  that  glorious 
alliance  of  truth-seeking-  and  truth-finding 
spirits.  Here  we  have  a  faint  and  temporary 
type  of  such  an  alliance  in  the  societies  which 
men  form  amongst  them.selves,  of  such  as  are 
devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  particular  depart- 
ments of  science  or  art.  But  subject  as  these 
neces:sarily  are  to  all  the  imperfections  of  our 
humanity,  and  to  all  the  restrictions  of  the 
present  time,  they  can  only  be  alluded  to  as 
mere  feeble  illustrations  of  what  may  be  sug- 
gested concerning  the  future.  Holy  Scripture 
intimates  to  us  in  metaphorical  language  the 
reunion  and  the  occupation  of  the  redeemed 
from  all  nations,  and  the  themes  and  objects  of 
their  praise  and  worship,  and  I  only  seek  to 
add  to  these  intimations,  the  higher  ministry 
which  higher  forms  or  unfoldings  of  Nature 
may  afford  to  us,  at  the  reunion  of  all  holy 
students  and  reverential  admirers  of  God's 
works. 

If  there  be  conspicuous  and  acknowledged 
advantage  in  the  fellowship  of  men  of  kindred 
pursuits  and  studies  on  earth,  how  greatly 
heightened  will  be  the  advantage  of  a  saintly 
and  sinless  fellowship  of  all  such  spirits  in 
heaven  !     Each    one    gladly   aiding    another : 


THE  FUTURE  HE  A  VEN  OF  MIND.  469 

all  jealousies,  rivalries,  backbitings,  and 
envies,  and  competitions  for  fame  and  human 
power  being  abolished ;  all  the  impediments 
of  distance,  of  failure,  of  infirm  health  and 
incapacity,  of  imperfect  comm.unication  and 
representation  being  removed ;  it  may  be  in- 
ferred that  whatever  can  be  gained  by  the 
ready,  and  rapid,  and  clear  inter-communications 
of  high  intelligence  will  certainly  be  acquired 
in  that  celestial  company.  And  with  such 
possibilities  it  is  hard  to  set  a  limit  to  the 
intellectual  achievements  of  immortal  students 
of  God's  glorious  handiwork.  The  processes 
of  discovery  being  far  more  facile  than  at 
present,  the  progress  may  be  proportionally 
accelerated.  When  tens  of  thousands  of 
ardent  souls  shall  be  expatiating  in  blessed 
companies  over  ample  domains  of  boundless 
space ;  all  intent  upon  the  same  pursuit, 
all  finding  their  true  felicity  in  searching 
into  the  admirable  plans,  the  grand  designs, 
and  the  manifold  interdependences  of  innumer- 
able created  things  ;  each  momently  commu- 
nicating to  each  his  particular  acquisition, 
all  with  glad  readiness  ascribing  praise  and 
honour,  and  glory  to  Him  who  has  made 
and    who   is    upholding    all   these    things   by 


470  THE  UNITED  PyEAN  OF  PRAISE. 

the  word  of  His  power ; — it  is  indeed  impossible 
to  predict  a  limit  to  discovery,  an  exhaustion 
of  knowledge,  or  a  bound  to  praise.  If  this 
be  not  the  Heaven  of  Mind,  it  will  be  difficult 
to  prefigure  one  that  shall  better  harmoni^-^ 
with  our  present  knowledge. 

Such  may  be  the  Highest  Ministry  of  Nature, 
to  all  Vv'ho  are  counted  worthy  to  enter  upon 
its  eternal  study.  Such  may  be  one  principal 
object  of  the  Divine  Being  in  creating  and  sus- 
taining Nature.  ~  That  He  delights  Himself  in 
the  contemplation  of  H^is  ever  manifold  works  is 
declared  in  Revelation,  and  is  consonant  with 
all  reason.  That  he  should  delight  himself 
in  the  more  limited  delight  which  the  creatures 
find  in  His  image,  and  take  in  His  works, 
is  also  consonant  to  all  reason.  If  in  some 
lofty  mode  exalted  seraphs  celebrated  the 
Almighty's  praise,  when  they  first  beheld  His 
wonderful  works,  if  the  Sons  of  God  sang 
together  for  joy  on  the  bright  morning  of 
Creation,  assuredly  the  human  children  of 
God^  nurtured  in  their  helpless  infancy  in  a 
far  country,  brought  up  amidst  the  half- 
understood  marvels  of  a  mysterious  land,  and 
departing  away  from  it  ere  they  have  obtained 
more    than     a    glimpse    of     its     exhaustless 


ONE  FAMILY  AND  ONE  SONG.  471 

natural  wealth ;  assuredly  these  children, 
when  adopted  into  the  heavenly  family, 
and  admitted  into  the  societies  of  angelic 
hierarchies,  and  endowed  with  far-reaching 
faculties  and  disencumbered  of  all  impedi- 
ments, will  take  up  the  un  faded  notes  of  the 
same  great  paean  of  praise  to  the  Infinite 
Creator! 

What  gave  joy  to  the  elder  sons  of  God, 
must  inevitably  give  joy  to  His  younger,  later, 
and  lower  offspring.  There  is  one  God  alone, 
and  there  will  be  ultimately  but  one  family  of 
God,  and  one  song,  though  chanted  in  many 
parts,  raised  by  that  universal  family ;  and  at 
least  one  grand,  inexhaustible  subject  of  praise, 
of  research,  reasoning,  and  rapturous  delight. 
Although  this  one  subject,  being  so  grand 
and  inexhaustible,  will  present  countless 
aspects  to  countless  investigating  intellects, 
yet  it  can  only  be  one  in  origin  and  one  in 
harmony,  as  being  the  product  of  the  One  Mind, 
and  having  for  its  object  His  praise.  On 
earth  we  learn  that  Manifoldness  in  Unity 
is  the  law  of  Creation,  and  if  we  learn  this 
while  observing  but  an  insignificant  part  ot 
the  Cosmos,  shall  we  not  more  deeply  feel  the 
same  truth  when  it  becomes  so   largely  cor- 


472  THE  TWO   WORLDS  ONE. 

roborated  by  our  ever-extending  observation  of 
ever-extending  Nature,  through  the  long  ages 
of  futurity  ? 

The  two  worlds  then  may  be  one.  A 
succession  of  stages  may  not  be  a  separation 
of  states.  If  there  be  a  continuity  of  life 
there  must  be  a  continuity  of  knowledge. 
Nature  is  the  outward  representation  of  the 
Divine  to  man,  and  the  Knowledge  of  Nature 
is  so  far  a  Knowledge  of  God.  True  that 
many  men  have  learnt  something  of  God's 
grace  who  were  wholly  ignorant  of  Nature 
and  of  Science.  True  that  babes  and  sucklings 
have  come  to  understand  the  salvation  of  God 
by  Jesus  Christ,  and  have  continued  as  ignorant 
as  babes  and  sucklings  are.  True  that  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  is  essential  to  salvation, 
and  the  knowledge  of  Nature  is  not.  All 
that  can  be  said  of  this  character  is  freely  and 
at  first  granted,  and  it  is  one  of  the  Divine 
mercies  that  things  should  be  so  consti- 
tuted. But  we  are  not  in  these  pages  dwelling 
upon  the  essentials  of  salvation.  These 
appertain  to  other  volumes,  and  to  other  ad- 
vocacy, than  mine.  I  speculate  concerning 
the  possible  attainments  and  rewards  of  the 
noblest  students  of  Nature. 


ULTIMATE  REALITIES.  473 


XXII. 

UL  TIM  A  TE  REALITIES—  CONCEPTIONS 
OF  GOD. 

T3  ELIGION  in  its  simplest  or  most  general 
-*-^  form  is  a  potent,  and  as  many  men  believe, 
an  increasingly  potent  element  in  our  social 
life.  Whence  does  it  spring  ?  Is  it  a  gift  of 
God,  or  a  product  of  material  evolution  ?  This 
is  the  question  now  addressed  to  us  with  an 
earnestness  never  before  known.  Let  us  first 
cite  the  answer  of  the  clearest  and  best  known 
evolutionist : — 

"Two  suppositions  only  are  open  to  us," 
says  Mr.  Spencer,  "  the  one  that  the  feeling 
which  responds  to  religious  ideas  resulted,  along 
with  all  other  human  faculties,  from  an  act  ot 
special  creation  ;  the  other,  that  it,  in  com- 
mon with  the  rest,  arose  by  a  process  of  evolu- 
tion. If  we  adopt  the  first  of  these  alternatives, 
universally  accepted  by  our  ancestors  and  by 


474    EVOLUTIONAL  GENESLS  OF  RELLGION, 

the  immense  majority  of  our  contemporaries, 
the  matter  is  at  once  settled :  m^an  is  directly 
endowed  with  the  religious  feeling  by  a  Creator, 
and  to  the  Creator  it  designedly  responds.  If 
we  adopt  the  second  alternative,  then  we  are 
met  by  the  questions — What  are  the  circum- 
stances to  which  the  genesis  of  the  religious 
feelincr  is  due?  and  what  is  its  office?  We 
are  bound  to  entertain  these  questions  ;  and  we 
are  bound  to  find  answers  to  them.  Consider- 
ing all  faculties,  as  we  must  on  this  supposition, 
to  result  from  accumulated  modifications,  caused 
by  the  intercourse  of  the  organ  with  its  environ- 
ment, we  are  obliged  to  admit  that  there 
exist  in  the  environment  certain  phenomena 
or  conditions  which  have  determined  the  growth 
of  the  feeling  in  question  ;  and  so  are  obliged 
to  admit  that  it  is  as  normal  as  any  other 
faculty.  Add  to  which  that  as,  on  the  develop- 
ment of  lower  forms  into  higher,  the  end  towards 
which  the  progressive  changes  directly  or  in- 
directly tend,  must  be  adaptation  to  the  require- 
ments of  existence  ;  we  are  also  forced  to  infer 
that  this  feeling  is  in  some  way  conducive  to 
human  welfare.  Thus  both  alternatives  contain 
the  same  ultimate  implication.  We  must  con- 
clude that  the  religious  sentiment  is  either  di- 


THE  OPPOSITE  OPINION.  475 

rectly  created,  or  is  created  by  the  slow  action 
of  natural  causes  ;  and  whichever  of  the  conclu- 
sions we  adopt,  requires  us  to  treat  the  religious 
sentiment  with  respect,"  * 

Adopting  from  the  first  the  opposite  opinion 
to  that  of  Mr.  Spencer,  on  the  source  of  our 
religion,  I  must  arrive  likewise  at  an  opposite 
opinion  respecting  its  issue.  Believing  that  it 
begins  with  God,  I  also  believe  that  it  ends  in 
Him — with  Him  as  distinctly  conceivable,  and 
as  made  more  and  more  distinctly  conceivable 
by  the  enlightenment  of  true  Science.  "  Sci- 
ence," as  Mr.  Spencer  defines  it,  ''  is  simply  a 
higher  development  of  common  knowledge;" 
and  the  Religious  Ministry  of  Nature  is,  as  I 
would  suggest,  a  higher  development  of  com- 
mon Science.  '*A11  Science,"  continues  our 
evolutionist,  "  is  prevision," — and  prevision  is 
what  I  claim  as  the  Higher  Ministry  of  Nature. 

The  study  of  natural  operations,  especially 
when  viewed  on  their  largest  scale,  directly 
and  powerfully  tends  to  expand  our  ideas  of  the 
Divine  Being  ;  and  in  this  respect  it  becomes 
a  useful  counteraction  to  the  limited  and  narrow 
conceptions  which  much  of  our  familiar  religious 
phraseology  fosters.     While  the  latter  has  its 

*  "First  Principles,"  p.  16. 


476  ENLARGED  VIEWS  OF  RELIGION. 

excuse  in  poverty  of  language  and  feebleness 
of  thought,  and  especially  in  the  customary 
circumscription  of  many  grand  truths  by  indi- 
vidual selfishness  ;  it  is  the  peculiar  ministry  of 
Nature  to  raise  the  mind  to  her  own  altitude, 
and  to  widen  thought  to  her  own  vast  latitude. 
Common  life  and  daily  drudgery  debase  our 
highest  powers,  and  confinement  to  one  spot 
and  to  one  round  of  duty  necessarily  dwarfs  our 
religion,  renders  it  sickly  and  unsupporting,  and 
obscures  to  us  the  grandeur  of  God.  In  such  a 
state,  if  we  contemplate  broad  and  unlimited 
Nature,  we  feel  as  if  chains  were  struck  off  from 
us,  and  we  could  walk  ever  onward  with  grow- 
ing conceptions  of  the  Great  Creator  and  Sus- 
tainer  of  all  we  see  and  all  we  are. 

When  we  have  once  surmounted  the  trying 
impediments  which  intervene  between  us  in  our 
low  valley  of  daily  life,  and  the  heights  from 
which  we  may  look  over  all  Nature, — and  like 
God  himself  in  the  primitive  benediction,  pro- 
nounce that  all  is  very  good — then  we  may 
fairly,  from  far  above  the  mists  of  lower  levels, 
contemplate  in  part  the  exceeding  grandeur  of 
the  Creator ;  somewhat  of  His  marvellous  and 
wise  government;  somewhat  of  the  order  of 
things,  and  the  end  of  things.     We  see  Him  to 


CONCEPTION  OF  GOD  FROM  NATURE.       477 

be  the  Great  and  Only  Fountain  of  Omnipotent 
Will ;  and  in  the  exercise  of  Will  He  becomes 
eternally  the  prime  mover  of  all  things.  He  is 
the  Force  of  all  forces, — the  one  centre  of 
force, — the  originator  of  all  motion.  We  move 
because  He  moves  in  us.  ''  In  Him  we  live  and 
move,  and  have  our  beinof." 

To  the  enlightened  and  religious  student  of 
Nature  viewed  as  the  manifestation  of  God  to 
man,  how  many  inspiriting  conceptions  of  the 
Great  Being  arise  in  the  happier  moments  of 
meditation  and  contemplation  !  As  Nature  is 
but  a  shadow  of  Deity,  so  the  reason  that  com- 
prehends its  higher  ministry  is  a  reflected  re- 
semblance of  the  unapproachable  Creator  who 
struck  this  spark  of  unfailing  light  into  the 
human  soul.  Reason,  which  is  a  thought  of 
God,  is  a  delegated  thought  to  man  made  in 
the  Divine  image.  God  is  the  intellectual  per- 
fection, and  man  is  only  becoming  perfect  as  he 
understands  that  perfection.  In  Nature — In  the 
vast  and  all-embracing  Cosmos,  we  discover 
God  proposing  to  himself  choice  designs,  and 
accomplishing  beneficent  ends.  We  see  Him 
contriving,  ordering,  disposing,  and  accom- 
plishing by  the  rule  of  his  wisdom,  and  in  the 
plenitude  of  his  power.     Myriads  of  creatures 


478  PERFECTION  OF  GOD  IN  NA  TURF. 


are  constantly  instrumental  and  unalterably 
subordinate  to  Him.  All  second  causes,  all 
mediate  ministries  are  ceaselessly  and  harmo- 
niously active  under  His  supreme  activity ;  and 
even  imperfect  human  governances,  and 
societies,  and  mechanisms,  only  secure  their 
social  aims  and  purposes,  as  they  resemble  His 
undefective  plans.  Nature  is  perfect  only 
because  He  is  perfect ;  men  imitate  the  "per- 
fection of  Nature;"  as  they  phrase  it,  v/hile  in 
reality  they  imitate  so  much  of  the  perfection 
of  God  as  they  discover  in  Nature. 

Yet  the  closest,  the  most  apparently  success- 
ful of  human  imitations,  suggested  by  our 
reason  and  executed  by  our  hands,  when  strictly 
regarded,  only  serve  to  show  us  our  inferiority 
to  Him.  We  must  needs  first  make  rough 
draughts  of  our  designs — we  must  studiously 
re-consider  these,  and  we  must  amend,  revise, 
and  re-shape  the  primal  conception.  All  our 
scientific  power  lies  in  slow  progress  from  point 
to  point ;  we  cannot  pass  by  clear  swift  thought ; 
but  we  cross  broad  rivers,  advance  over  frail 
bridges,  or  ford  streamlets  on  precarious  step- 
ping stones.  Reversely,  at  the  first  glance  of 
His  eye  from  everlasting.  He  pierced  into  the 
depth  of  all  things,  into  all  dimensions  of  being. 


THE  PERVADING  NATIONAL  UNITY,        479 

and  saw  what  he  designed  to  do,  as  if  it  were 
already  done.  We  behold  things  in  colours 
and  shades.  He  views  them  in  the  pure 
crystal  of  his  foreknowledge,  uncoloured  and 
unshadowed.  We  take  counsel  with  others, 
and  with  wiser  ones  than  ourselves  ;  He  doeth 
all  things  according  to  the  counsel  of  His  own 
will.  Looking  only  into  His  own  omnipotence, 
he  discerns  all  possibilities  ;  into  His  own  wis- 
dom He  beholds  all  degrees  and  differences  of 
things ;  into  His  own  purposes  He  foresees  all 
issues.  To  Him  the  beginning  and  the  end 
are  but  two  beams  of  the  same  li^ht ! 

After  studious  labour  and  life-long  research 
we  attain  to  a  clear  idea  of  the  pervading  unity 
of  things  created.  This  unity  is  an  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  Divine  unity.  The  more 
numerous  the  links  between  things,  the  more 
subtle  the  grades  of  transition  between  sub- 
stances, the  greater  is  our  toil  in  tracing  and 
recording  them.  Starting,  however,  from  the 
idea  of  unity  in  the  Creator,  we  find  that  con- 
ception expressed  and  realized  in  the  grand 
unity  of  all  things  natural.  "  There  is  One 
God,  and  Mohammed  is  His  prophet,"  say 
the  Mohammedans  ;  let  us  substitute  one  word 
for  another,  and  we  have   this  nobler  truth, — ■ 


48o  THE  UNITY  OF  SCIENCE. 

*'  There  is  one  God,  and  Nature  is  His  pro- 
phet.'* 

The  perfection  of  Science  is  Unity.  Ad- 
vanced minds  foresee  this  as  the  end  of  all 
Scientific  research.  *'  All  Sciences  approach 
perfection,"  said  Baden  Powell,  *'  as  they  ap- 
proach to  a  unity  of  first  principles, — in  all 
cases  recurring  to,  or  tending  towards  certain 
high  elementary  conceptions  which  are  the  re- 
presentatives of  the  great  archetypal  ideas, 
according  to  which  the  whole  system  is  ar- 
ranged. Inductive  conceptions,  very  partially 
and  imperfectly  realized  and  apprehended  by 
human  intellect,  are  the  exponents  in  our  minds 
of  these  great  principles  in  Nature."  And 
again,  "  All  Science  is  but  the  partial  reflection 
in  the  reason  of  man,  of  the  great  all-pervading 
reason  of  the  universe.  And  thus  the  nnity  of 
Science  is  the  reflection  of  the  miity  of  Nature, 
and  of  the  unity  of  that  Supreme  reason  and 
intelligence  which  pervades  and  rules  over 
Nature,  and  from  whence  all  reason  and  all 
Science  is  derived." 

''  All  existence  is  a  dominion  of  reason,"  said 
Oersted,  "The  laws  of  Nature  are  laws  of  reason, 
and  altogether  form  an  endless  unity  of  reason — • 
one  and  the  same  throughout  the  universe." 


THE    UNKNOWN  REALITY.  481 

This  one  reason  in  Nature  points  indirectly 
to  the  One  God.  Even  the  mere  Natural 
Evolutionist  at  last  arrives  at  unity.  As  a 
final  Scientific  result  this  may  be  stated  in  the 
words  of  Mr.  Spencer,  at  the  conclusion  of  his 
*'  First  Principles." 

**  As  repeatedly  shown  in  various  ways,  the 
deepest  are  simply  statements  of  the  widest 
uniformities  in  our  experience  of  the  relations 
of  Matter,  Motion,  and  Force  ;  and  Matter, 
Motion,  and  Force  are  but  symbols  of  the 
Unknown  Reality.  That  Power  of  which  the 
nature  remains  for  ever  inconceivable,  and  to 
which  no  limits  in  Time  or  Space  can  be 
imagined,  works  in  us  certain  effects.  These 
effects  have  certain  likenesses  of  kind,  the  most 
general  of  which  we  class  together  under  the 
names  of  Matter,  Motion,  and  Force ;  and 
between  these  effects  there  are  likenesses  of 
connection,  the  most  constant  of  which  we  class 
as  laws  of  the  highest  certainty.  Analysis 
reduces  these  several  kinds  of  effect  to  one 
kind  of  effect ;  and  these  several  kinds  of  uni- 
formity to  one  kind  of  uniformity.  And  the 
hio[-hest  achievement  of  Science  is  the  interore- 
tation  of  all  orders  of  Phenomena,  as  differently 
conditioned  manifestations  of  this  one  kind  of 

31 


482  MONISM  AND  ITS  PHASES. 

effect,  under  differently  conditioned  modes  of 
this  one  kind  of  uniformity.  But  when  Science 
has  done  this,  it  has  done  nothing  more  than 
systematize  our  experience ;  and  has  in  no 
degree  extended  the  limits  of  our  experience." 

Such  ideas  as  these  lead  to  what  has  been 
called  Monism,  in  opposition  to  Dualism. 
Monism,  however,  is  in  idea  allied  to  Pan- 
theism, Materialism,  Idealism,  and  Positivism. 
Monism  seeks  for  nothing  behind  the  Phe- 
nomenal, which  it  unifies.  In  Pantheism 
we  see  the  Monism  of  Consubstantiation  ;  in 
Materialism  we  see  the  Monism  of  Matter ;  in 
Idealism  the  Monism  of  Mind  or  Will,  in  Posi- 
tivism that  of  Science  or  Knowledge.  In  Dar- 
winism we  have  again  a  phase  of  Monism  ;  in 
Evolution  we  have  the  same  or  a  similar  phase 
of  Monism.  Hence  it  is  that  Pantheism,  Mate- 
rialism, and  Darwinism,  and  Evolution,  are  so 
nearly  akin,  and  hence  it  is  that  they  possess 
so  strong  an  attraction  for  minds  so  constituted, 
or  habituated,  as  to  think  only  in  the  direction 
of  Monism.  Moreover,  in  this  respect,  they  all 
appear  to  have  a  certain  kinship  with  Mono- 
theistic creeds. 

It  behoves  me,  therefore,  to  observe  empha- 
tically that  Christian   Theism   is  not  Monism, 


MONISM  AND  ITS  PHASES.  4S3 

but  Christianity  may  partly  adopt  its  style,  its 
method,  and  language.  As  a  Christian,  I  re- 
joice to  find  that  the  highest  Science  points  to 
Unity,  though  that  is  not  the  Ultimate  Reality. 
In  the  English  language  I  know  of  no  writer 
who  has  so  laboriously  and  so  cleverly  wrought 
out  (or  nearly  wrought  out)  a  comprehensive 
and  naturalistic  Monism,  as  Mr.  Herbert  Spen- 
cer. With  undaunted  perseverance,  with  rare 
clearness  of  statement,  though  with  great  incon- 
sistencies, he  has  built  up  a  system  of  naked 
Naturalism,  which  will  hardly  be  equalled  in 
our  time  ;  but  it  is  radically  defective.  On  the 
Unifying  principle  he  has  written  forcibly,  and 
conchisively  as  to  the  fact  of  Unity.  But  at 
the  best  in  his  hands  it  becomes  Natural  Mon- 
ism— subtly  shifting  its  form  as  you  approach 
to  attack  and  oppose  it,  yet  however  you  inter- 
pret it,  you  discover  that  it  is  Absolute  Monism. 
The  *^  Ultimate  Reality,"  the  Movoc — is  abso- 
lutely and  for  ever  ''  Unknowable."  All  that 
you  can  ever  predicate  of  it  or  him  is  that  he  or 
it  is  the  Moi/oc.  That  wonderful  activity,  or 
force,  or  entity,  of  whatever  kind,  effects  every 
thing,  but  never  can  be  known  by  any  thing.  If 
you  charge  upon  this  the  character  of  Material- 
ism, at  once  it  is  translated  into  Mind.     If  you 


484  CHRISTIAN  DUALISM. 

claim  it  as  Mind,  and  gladden  yourself  with  the 
hope  that  you  have  attained  to  some  conception 
of  the  Christian's  God,  at  once  it  is  translated 
back  into  Matter.  It  cannot  be  a  nonentity, 
because  it  is  allowed  to  be  the  Ultimate  Reality. 
It  cannot  be  the  Christian's  Ultimate  Reality, 
because  for  all  purposes  of  love,  reverence,  and 
worship,  it  becomes  a  nonentity. 

Such  is  the  highest  reach  of  evolutionary 
reasoning.  **  Our  great  philosopher,"  Mr. 
Spencer,  (in  the  complimentary  language  of 
*'  our  great  Naturalist,"  Mr.  Darwin,)  has  con- 
ducted us  to  this  issue ;  and  it  appears  that  no 
similar  thinkers  can  conduct  us  higher. 

A  Christian  Naturalist  cannot  be  an  advocate 
of  Monism,  for  in  one  aspect  he  maintains 
Dualism ;  not  the  oriental  Dualism,  in  any  of 
its  soul-captivating  and  seductive  shapes.  He 
is  to  this  extent  only  a  Dualist ;  that  he  believes 
there  are  two  distinct  existences  intimately  re- 
lated. One  is  God,  and  the  other  Nature. 
Both  are  respectively  One,  and  separately  One. 
So  far,  and  no  farther  the  Christian  is  a  Dualist. 
He  gratefully  accepts  the  conclusions  of  Modern 
Science,  in  all  likelihood  to  be  more  and  more 
confirmed,  that  the  Cosmos  is  a  Unity.  To  this 
he  adds  that  God  is  unity — totally  distinct  from 


UNIVERSAL    WILL-FORCE.  485 

the  Natural  Unity;  perfect  without  it,  but  in- 
finitely more  glorious  with  it ;  known  to  us  by 
it,  unknown  to  us  apart  from  it.  This  concep- 
tion of  God  is  perfectly  compatible  with  all 
Science,  while  it  is  entirely  incompatible  with 
Scientific  Monism. 

Accepting  this  Christian  conception  of  God, 
you  can  accept  all  the  established  conclusions 
of  Modern  Science.  Rejecting  it,  you  can  also 
receive  them  ;  but  in  that  case  you  must  adopt 
one  or  another  of  the  before-named  substitutes. 
There  are  plausible  arguments  for  each  of 
them,  and,  as  I  think,  the  most  plausible  for 
Idealism.  If  you  resolve  all  the  forces  acting 
in  Nature  into  Will-Force,  you  appear  to  come 
very  near  to  Christian  Theism.  At  the  least, 
you  obtain  a  grand  conception,  but  it  may  be 
needful  to  guard  and  defend  it  from  the  charge 
of  Idealistic  Monism.  In  this  grand  conception 
you  may  include  God  in  the  form  of  Omnipotent 
Will,  and  you  may  work  this  out  in  a  variety 
of  directions.  The  result  would  perhaps  be 
the  most  seductive  of  all  modern  views  on 
the  side  of  Nature ;  but  the  lines  between  it 
and  Spiritual  Pantheism  are  very  shadowy  and 
shifting.  If  you  will  clearly  retain  the  distinc- 
tions drawn  in  these  pages,  and  avoid  Idealistic 


486    WORTHY  AND  UNWORTHY  CONCEPTIONS. 

Monism,  the  All-Will-Force  hypothesis  is  not 
only  attractive,  but  allowable. 

With  the  ruling  conception  of  the  principle  of 
Unity,  it  is  practicable  so  to  study  Nature  as 
to  relate  every  constituent  part  of  it  ultimately 
to  God — to  the  Personal  and  Omnipotent  and 
Omnipresent  God — and  so  to  find  in  Nature 
a  series  of  giant  altar-steps,  leading  up  to 
the  Great  Constructor  and  beneficent  Con- 
servator. It  is  possible  to  be  a  natural  philoso- 
pher and  a  natural  pietist  ;  and  so  to  combine 
the  two  characters  that  a  high  and  harmonious 
Christianity  may  be  the  happy  result.  The 
mere  unstudious  and  unobservant  pietist,  how- 
ever personally  amiable,  will  dwarf  the  idea 
of  God  down  to  his  ow^n  narrow  and  incon- 
siderable individuality.  He  will  view  the  Great 
Being  solely  in  his  own  microcosm,  and  con- 
tract all  the  scattered  thoughts  he  has  ever 
gained  of  Him  into  a  relationship  to  his 
own  petty  and  atomic  self.  Nothing  can  be 
more  contemptible  than  the  manner  in  which 
the  dread  Jehovah  is  too  frequently  circum- 
scribed wdthin  the  circle  of  some  insignificant 
Interests  of  humanity.  Nothing  can  be  more 
anworthy  than  the  way  in  which  He  is  so 
humanized  as  to  suppose  him  as  weak,  vacil- 


NATURE  THE  BEST  CORRECTOR.  487 


lating,  as  our  ignorant  selves.  This,  however, 
is  not  due  to  religion,  but  rather  to  the  lack  of 
it,  to  want  of  reflection,  and  especially  to  un- 
acquaintance  with  God's  action  in  the  grand 
theatre  of  natural  phenomena.  A  man  who 
confines  his  thought  and  experience  to  the 
narrow  walls  of  his  own  chamber,  and  the 
contemptible  littleness  of  his  own  daily  con- 
cerns, will  never  form  a  worthy  conception  of 
Deity.  Let  such  an  one  go  forth  into  the 
broad  openness  of  the  natural  world,  and  at  his 
first  step  into  the  free  atmosphere  he  enlarges 
his  views,  amends  his  misconceptions,  begins 
to  grasp  the  idea  of  the  Infinite  God,  who 
has  infinite  space  for  his  sphere  of  action,  all 
conceivable  and  observable  worlds  for  his 
progeny,  and  all  created  beings  for  his  un- 
ceasing concern  and  his  parental  care.  From 
the  first  moment  that  the  contemplator  of  God 
in  Nature  realizes  this  combination  of  ideas, 
he  begins  to  be  a  philosopher,  yet  need  not 
cease  to  be  a  Christian. 

As  God  is  in  some  manner  the  Creator  of  each 
inorganic  atom,  so  likewise  he  is  the  Creator 
of  each  organic  atom,  and  the  minuteness  of  a 
molecule  does  not  exclude  it  from  His  care. 
As    Creator   He   is   brous^-ht   within  our   con- 


488        UNIVERSAL  AND  UNIFYING  SPIRIT. 

ceptions  by  natural  phenomena.  The  Deity 
reveals  Himself  to  sense  by  means  of  the 
material  universe,  while  He  himself  is  pure 
Spirit.  To  our  spirits  He  reveals  Himself  as  the 
Universal  and  Unifying  Spirit.  Nevertheless, 
though  the  revelations  be  twofold  in  form, 
they  are  one  in  result ;  for  our  conception 
of  the  material  universe  is  imperfect  if  it  does 
not  include  the  persistent  energy  of  the  eter- 
nal creating  Spirit. 

Thus  the  twofold  nature  of  Man  is  brought 
into  relation  with  the  Creator.  The  Nature 
that  encompasses  and  contains  us,  is  in  every 
part  a  work  of  the  living  God  ;  the  Nature  that 
is  within  us  is  the  same  ;  but  that  which  is 
within,  is  the  perceptive  and  appreciative  prin- 
ciple, and  comprehends  the  laws  of  material 
nature,  and  methodizes  phenomena,  and  carries 
common  knowledge  up  to  the  higher  stage 
of  verified  science.  This  also,  rightly  regarded, 
makes  the  spiritual  and  material  one,  and  man 
himself  one  in  his  double  nature,  and  in  a 
manner  makes  man  one  with  God — yea,  one 
with  God, — ^not  in  substance,  not  by  absorption, 
but  one  in  image,  in  likeness,  in  character. 
The  great  Creator  looks  on  Nature,  and  is 
satisfied  with  it;   Man   looks   on   N^Ttnrp.   and 


CREATION  IS  DIVINE  EXPRESSION.        489 


is  gratified  with  it.  Both,  with  an  infinite 
difference  of  knowledge,  contemplate  Nature 
with  delight — in  that  delight,  both  are  one. 
At  this  point  of  conjunction  the  Infinite  meets 
the  finite — the  Creator  his  noblest  earthly 
creation.  Eliminate  the  idea  of  God,  and 
Nature  remains  only  as  a  persistent  perplexity 
— an  insoluble  problem. 

The  whole  visible  creation  may  be  contem- 
plated as  God's  method  of  external  expression. 
It  is  the  manner  in  which  He  gives  out  Him- 
self to  His  noblest  earthly  image — man.  It  is 
the  language  in  which  He  bespeaks  Himself  to 
us — a  language  which  we  can  interpret;  in- 
deed He  could  not  express  Himself  In  any 
other  language  which  we  could  apprehend.  Even 
to  learn  this  language  is  the  task  of  an  entire 
life,  and  time,  if  not  capacity,  would  fail  us  to 
learn  any  other.  Every  listening  soul  will  hear 
God  expressing  His  voice.  His  interpretable 
speech  in  the  utterances  of  Nature. 

Every  man,  the  higher  his  culture,  the  wider 
his  knowledge,  desires  to  give  an  expression  of 
himself  to  his  fellows.  Hence  reasoning, 
rhetoric, embellishment, exposition,  poetry;  and 
hence  art,  ornament,  decoration,  and  display. 
What  is  true  poetry  but  the  outpouring  of  the 


490  POETRY  AND  ART  UNBOUNDED. 


poet's  soul?  What  is  true  art  but  the  exter- 
nalization  of  the  true  artist's  conception? 
Neither  of  them  is,  as  so  erroneously  by  some 
represented,  the  mere  self-conceived  embodi- 
ment of  the  thinking  individual.  It  is  the 
embodiment  of  the  Creator's  creation — the 
human  embodiment  of  the  thoughts  of  the 
Divine  Creator.  Every  noble  thought,  every 
noble  verse,  every  noble  design  or  pictorial 
representation  is  an  expression  of  a  thought  of 
the  Highest.  In  proportion  as  it  is  the  pure 
expression  of  a  purified  spirit,  so  it  is  in  His. 

Mark  how  the  highest  works  of  poetic  and 
representative  art  transcend  the  limits  of  hu- 
man delight  and  utility.  Were  utilitarian  ad- 
vantages their  ultimate  bound,  why  the  intense 
striving  of  true  genius  to  reach  something 
beyond  the  useful  and  pleasing  ?  Where  does 
the  highest  ideal  of  the  highest  masters — poets 
or  painters — shape  itself  and  rest?  Beyond 
the  present  hour,  the  present  generation,  the 
present  life.  It  is  aerial,  and  though  intangible 
and  half  inexpressible,  it  is  heavenly.  If  only 
born  for  the  world  that  now  is,  and  the  race 
that  now  lives,  it  has  power  beyond  its 
measure,  life  more  vital  than  it  needs ;  it  has 
potential  energies  that  can  never  be  exercised. 


GOD  IN  ALL  INFLUENTIALLY.  491 

The  creations  of  the  highest  genius  are  its  out- 
ward world,  and  they  are  to  the  inward 
creative  principle  a  resemblance  of  v/hat  out- 
ward Nature  is  to  God. 

To  those  who  intelligently  believe  in  Him, 
God  is  all  or  nothing — all  not  pantheistically — ■ 
but  all  influentially.  If  He  be  all,  He  is  in  all, 
and  to  separate  Him  potentially  from  any 
thing  in  me  or  around  me,  violates  a  primary 
relation  of  His  nature.  If  you  remove  Him  as 
Creator  by  an  infinite  retrospect  to  a  mythical 
primordial  germ,  He  is  not  creatively  omni- 
present ;  and  you  remove  me  likewise  afar  from 
Him,  and  place  me  in  a  wilderness  of  vagrant 
molecules.  I  find  myself  able  to  think,  to  de- 
sign, to  invent,  to  imagine,  to  paint,  to 
influence  my  fellow  men ;  and  I  find  myself 
reciprocally  affected  by  them.  I  and  they  have 
these  powers  and  susceptiblities  because  God 
endowed  us  with  them  ;  and  I  see  in  their  ex- 
cercise  an  adumbration  of  His  own  image. 
The  creative  power  always  present  in  Him 
created  me  in  His  image ;  and  sure  I  am  that 
His  ever-operative  influence  elicits,  evolves, 
developes  mentally  creative  powers,  by  the 
conditions  in  which  he  places  me.  Sure  I 
am  that  He  is  the  Author  of  every  good  and 


492  THE  SUN  OF  SUNS. 

perfect  gift,  which  comes  down  to  me  from 
Him  as  light  from  the  sun. 

The  sun  itself  is  in  position  many  millions 
of  miles  away  from  me,  but  it  is  an  accepted 
conclusion  of  Science  that  I  could  not  breathe, 
or  see,  or  move,  without  his  influential  ac- 
tivity. In  his  far  photosphere  he  is  so  remote 
from  me  that  I  can  scarcely  recognize  my  physi- 
cal dependence  upon  him.  Nevertheless,  Science 
informs  me,  and  I  believe  it  teaches  truly,  that 
whatever  I  do  in  ordinary  life  is  in  a  manner 
done  by  the  sun ;  that  all  my  force  is  due  to 
him,  that  my  physical  existence  hangs  upon 
him,  that  my  death  will  result  from  my  in- 
abillty  to  appropriate  his  communicated  energy 
as  aforetime.  This  is  never  denied.  Why  then 
should  corresponding  truths  be  denied  when  I 
apply  them  to  relations  between  God  and  my 
soul,  as  well  as  my  body?  If  it  be  explained 
that  the  sun  vitalizes  and  energizes  me  by  natu- 
ral laws,  then  I  credit,  I  acknowledge  it,  and  I 
affirm  that  God  does  the  same  in  energizing  my 
.'pi fit  by  His  spiritual  laws.  God  is  light,  the 
bun  of  Suns,  above  and  behind  them  all,  and  I 
can  no  more  separate  myself  from  Him  than 
from  the  sun  of  our  system. 

A  law  of  material  Nature  must  satisfy  all  the 


GOD  ALL  IN  ALL  AND  TO  ALL,  493 

known  conditions  which  it  is  proposed  to  ex- 
plain. It  becomes  known  as  a  higher  law  by 
the  all-comprehensiveness  of  its  action.  A  law 
of  Mind  must  display  the  same  character.  Mind 
is  of  God,  therefore  God  influences  all  that  it 
does,  has  done,  and  will  do.  This  satisfies  all 
known  conditions  of  our  nature. 

Either  then  there  is  no  recognizable  God,  or 
He  is  all  in  all,  and  to  all.  With  avowed 
atheists  we  do  not  here  argue ;  we  are  solely 
dealing  with  those  who  think  the  belief  in  a 
Creator  ennobling  and  essential,  and  yet  pro- 
pose such  an  agency  as  Natural  Selection,  or 
some  similar  metaphorical  factor,  as  the  key  to 
the  construction  or  evolution  of  the  sum  of  inor- 
ganic, organic,  and  mental  and  spiritual  ex- 
istences. Rightly  regarded,  all  these,  and  any 
other  agencies  which  Science  may  discover, 
bring  us  near  to  God,  and  the  more  sure,  ascer- 
tainable, and  potent  they  are,  the  nearer  they 
bring  us  to  Him.  They  render  Him  to  man  the 
more  knowable,  and  thus  I  reverse  the  use 
which  others  make  of  them  to  prove  that  He 
by  these  becomes  unknowable. 

A  human  mechanist  employs  a  particular 
method  of  solving  a  mechanical  problem,  and 
accomplishing  a  desired  end.     I  never  saw  that 


494    THE  MECHANIST  AND  HIS  MECHANISM. 


mechanist,  and  I  never  may  see  him,  but  I 
conceive  of  him  by  his  accomphshment  of  a 
desirable  and  obtainable  result.  Am  I  to  be 
told  that,  although  I  believe  and  admire  this 
result,  he  has  merely  availed  himself  of 
certain  physical  properties  in  matter,  v/hich 
themselves  thus  become  known  to  me,  as  di- 
rected to  a  particular  end,  while  the  con- 
structor is  unknowable?  Am  I  to  be  informed 
that  he  is  a  mere  employer  of  Force  or  Forces, 
and  that  I  can  only  know  these  as  producing 
the  observed  mechanism?  Then,  am  I  not 
right  in  rejoining  "vv^ithout  his  mind  and  action 
the  Force  or  Forces  could  have  done  nothing ; 
they  would  have  been  totally  inoperative :  the 
mechanism  could  not  have  been  self- constructed, 
therefore  the  constructor  is  really  known  to  me 
according  to  the  measure  of  his  mechanism." 

If  it  be  objected,  "this  reasoning  mayor  may 
not  be  sound,  but  in  introducing  God  you  are 
fcrcibly  introducing  a  personal  conception,  and 
adding  on  to  Science  what  it  does  not  by  itself 
teach,"  I  reply,  "your  objection  is  precisely  that 
Vv'hich  I  venture  to  denounce.  Science  does  lead 
fairly  to  my  conclusions,  though  it  may  not  lead 
you  to  them;  and  this  not  because  I  violently 
break  the  logical  chain,  and  insert  a  new  link  or 


LIMITS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  REASONING.         495 


chain,  but  because  I  follow  the  chain  to  its  rea- 
sonable end.  You  can  stop  whenever  it  pleases 
you  to  stop  :  if  you  have  nothing  but  a  natural 
sequence  or  law  to  trace  and  define,  you  are 
right  in  stopping  when  you  have  traced  it.  If 
that  be  your  sole  object,  pause  when  you  have 
secured  it,  and  no  one  will  blame  you  ;  but  if 
you  have  an  object  beyond  this,  and  if  that  be 
the  subversion  of  a  higher,  nay,  a  religious 
belief,  such  as  Special  or  Continuous  Creation, 
or  Divine  niterference  or  action,  to  employ  fami- 
liarly known  phrases,  then  I  say  that  your  infe- 
rences or  conclusions  no  longer  possess  th*^ 
character  of  Science,  or  partake  in  any  measure 
of  its  precision. 

'*  You  may  be  a  practised  physicist  or  phy- 
siologist, or  biologist,  and  so  far  as  the 
phenomena  submitted  to  you  in  these  studies 
are  v^^eil  observed,  so  far  you  are  well  worthy 
of  attention  and  credit.  But  when  you  venture 
further  and  impose  upon  others  conclusions  hav- 
ing relation  to  a  very  different  field  of  thought, 
these  can  only  be  regarded  as  your  personal  in- 
ferences, which  betray  the  bias  of  your  own 
mind,  which  are  the  consequences  of  your 
own  habit  of  thinking,  and  which  possess  no 
authority  whatever.     Their   value   is  such  c> 


496  INAPPLICABLE  PRINCIPLES. 

may  be  assigned  to  your  mode  of  reasoning- 
upon  topics  which  do  not  belong  to  your 
special  studies,  and  upon  which  you  may  prove 
to  be  weak,  while  in  another  department  you 
are  wise/' 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  all  around  us 
able  men  draw  sound  scientific  conclusions, 
who  in  higher  departments,  reason  erroneously 
upon  inapplicable  principles.  The  principles 
they  discover  or  imagine  in  Nature,  are  trans- 
lated into  a  loftier  region,  and  are  made  the 
basis  of  sweeping  conclusions  which  have  no 
real  relation  to  the  higher  kingdom.  The 
rules  that  govern  and  direct  our  observa- 
tions in  the  phenomenal  world,  do  not  neces- 
sarily exercise  influence  in  the  super-sensible 
world.  Doubtless  there  are  fixed  conditions 
and  laws  in  both  worlds;  doubtless,  too,  in 
the  highest  sense  both  worlds  are  one,  that 
is,  one  to  the  One  Ruler,  but  they  are  not 
clearly  one  to  us.  The  Divine  Lawgiver 
has  given  laws  to  both  worlds,  and  works 
by  them  in  both  ;  and  probably  works  toward 
some  one  grand  and  glorious  issue,  which  it  be- 
longs to  higher  natures  than  ours  to  discern 
dimly  and  to  admire  reverently ;  but  to  affirm 
that  the  laws  regulating  the  phenomenal  be- 


ANALOGICAL  REASONING.  497 

liever  regulates  the  super-phenomenal  world  is 
to  say  that  the  unknown  must  be  constituted  like 
the  known.  This  is  at  the  least  a  presumption 
with  which  scientific  men  claiming-  to  observe 
with  exactitude,  should  not  be  chargeable. 

Nevertheless  this  charge  cannot  justly  be 
brought  against  our  reasoning  from  Analogy  ; 
and  it  is  important  to  draw  this  distinction 
because  a  specious  retort  might  be  otherwise 
made.  We  have  no  other  mode  of  reasoning 
from  the  natural  into  the  spiritual  world  than 
the  analogical.  Direct  Revelation  and  Faith 
being  for  the  moment  left  out  of  consideration, 
our  proper  business  as  cultivated  human  beings 
is  to  reason  by  analogy,  from  things  seen  to 
things  unseen.  Our  care  must  be  to  reason 
fairly  from  analogy,  and,  apart  from  special 
revelation,  this  is  the  true  method  of  arriv- 
ing at  probable  opinions  concerning  things  we 
do  not  see,  and  of  which  we  can  form  no  precise 
or  demonstrable  conclusion. 

Extinguish  analogical  reasoning,  which  not 
a  few  pure  naturalists  and  some  metaphysicians 
desire  to  do,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  one 
can  arive  at  any  truth  not  absolutely  derived 
from  the  phenomenal,  or  physical.  Even 
truths  of  the  latter  kind  are  often  arrived  at  by 

2i2 


493  THE  ANALOGICAL  METHOD. 

adopting-  an  analogical  course ;  and  in  super- 
phenomenal  reasoning  it  is  the  only  method 
that  we  can  adopt.  What  Butler  did  by  the 
careful  use  of  this  method  is  notorious,  but 
even  he  in  his  day  might  have  done  something- 
more,  had  he  not  been  influenced  by  a  needless 
fear  of  over- stepping  his  method.  In  our  day 
the  analogical  method  rightly  and  skilfully 
used,  would  make  the  Higher  Ministry  of 
Nature  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  inspirit- 
ing of  all  ministries.  Some  partial  exemplifi- 
cations of  its  power  have  been  given  in  this 
volume  ;  but  in  an  age  of  transition  like  ours, 
so  much  time  is  unhappily  expended  in  com- 
bating the  specious,  and  exposing  the  unsound, 
that  the  utmost  that  an  author  can  hope  to 
effect  is  to  place  that  ministry  on  a  sure  basis, 
leaving  it  to  others  to  expand  its  influence  and 
display  its  full  results.  This  Higher  Ministry 
will,  in  its  highest  results,  be  the  privilege  of 
the  future.  Only  a  few  of  the  many  natural 
paths  which  lead  us  to  Deity  can  now  be 
traced,  and  even  these  are  beset  with  the  thorns 
and  briars  of  controversy.  At  every  step  v/e 
advance  through  vexatious  entanglements  ;  at 
every  step  we  have  to  disengage  ourselves 
from  the   rank  weeds  Vv'hich  will    one  day  be 


THE    CLEARER  FUTURE.  45,9 

eradicated,  and  cast  among-st  the  refuse. 
Happy  will  they  be  who  follow  us  in  happier 
times,  not  because  the  Great  Being-  will  be  more 
mightily  operant  in  the  universe  world  than 
now,  not  because  He  will  deign  to  appear  in 
more  visible  creative  grandeur,  but  because 
men  v.all  look  upwards  upon  a  scene  from  which 
clouds  have  been  withdrawn.  Happier  are 
the  men  to  be  born  at  mid-da3%  than  they  who 
preceded  them  in  the  misty  morning. 

Some  pertinent  remarks  have  been  made  by 
Mr.  Wallace  which  here  deserve  quotation. 
*'  We  are  just  now  living  in  an  abnormal  period 
of  the  world's  histor}^  owing  to  the  miarvellous 
developments  and  vast  practical  results  of 
Science,  having  been  given  to  societies  too  low 
morally  and  intellectuall}^  to  know  how  to 
make  the  best  use  of  them,  and  to  whom  they 
have  consequently  been  curses  as  well  as  bless- 
ings. Among  civilized  nations  at  the  present 
day,  it  does  not  seem  possible  for  Natural  Selec- 
tions to  act  in  any  way,  so  as  to  secure  the 
permanent  advancement  of  morality  and  intelli- 
gence ;  for  it  is  indisputably  the  mediocre,  if 
not  the  low,  both  as  regards  m.orality  and  in- 
telligence, who  succeed  best  and  multiply 
fastest.    Yet  there  is  undoubtedly  an  advance-- 


50O         SCIENTIFIC  RESULTS  PERVERTED. 


on  the  whole  a  steady  and  permanent  one — 
both  in  the  influence  on  public  opinion  of  a 
high  morality,  and  in  the  general  desire  for 
intellectual  elevation  ;  and  as  I  cannot  impute 
this  in  any  way  to  *'  survival  of  the  fittest,"  I 
am  forced  to  conclude  that  it  it  is  due  to  the 
inherent  progressive  power  of  those  glorious 
qualities  which  raise  us  so  immeasurably  above 
our  fellow  animals,  and  at  the  same  time  afford 
us  the  surest  proof  that  there  are  other  and 
hicrher  existences  than  ourselves  from  whom 
these  qualities  may  have  been  derived,  and 
towards  whom  we  may  be  ever  tending." 

Not  only  do  these  observations  commend 
themselves  to  our  acceptance,  but  occurring  as 
they  do  at  the  close  of  a  volume  which  its 
author  has  dedicated  to  an  attempt  to  establish 
the  power  of  Natural  Selection,  they  are  par- 
ticularly significant.  Unquestionably  the 
marvellous  development  and  vast  practical 
results  of  Science  have  been  given  to  societies 
far  too  low,  morally  and  intellectually,  to 
employ  them  in  the  best  manner.  To  such 
societies  they  are  emphatically  curses  as  well 
as  blessings  ;  and  the  greatest  of  all  curses  is 
this, — that  the  higher  and  nobler  inferences  and 
conclusions  to  which  they  should  have  led  men 


INCOMPREHENSIBLE    NOT   UNKNOWABLE.  501 

have  been  perverted.  Unhappily,  instead  of 
strengthening  and  enforcing  that  Higher 
Ministry  to  which  they  have  a  direct  tendency, 
instead  of  conducting  men  to  the  Author, 
Director,  and  Controller  of  all,  they  have 
brought  many  to  a  mere  recognition  of  second 
causes,  and  to  the  erection  of  an  altar  to  the 
Unknowable  Deity, — who  may  be  living  and 
energizing  all,  or  may  be  a  lifeless  abstraction, 
a  shadow  of  something  inconceivable,  a  being 
who  is  philosophically  **  unthinkable,"  an  im- 
personal supreme  force,  which  may  or  may  not 
be  an  entity,  or  nothing  beyond  a  concept. 

A  word  or  two  may  be  permitted  on  the 
essential  difference  between  Unknowable  and 
Incomprehensible.  I  may  know  God  now,  but 
I  may  never  perfectly  comprehend  Him.  I  know 
Him  in  Grace,  and  in  part  by  Nature,  and  the 
more  I  know  of  Nature  the  more  I  think  I  know  of 
of  Him.  So  far,  indeed,  I  only  repeat  what  has 
been  a  leading  thought  of  this  volume,  yet  the 
repetition  may  be  pardoned,  for  the  confusion 
of  an  Unknowable  with  an  Incomprehensible 
being  seems  to  be  frequent,  and  to  lie  at  the 
^  root  of  much  false  philosophy.  Should  this  con- 
fusion continue  and  prevail,  the  discoveries  of 
Science  will  be  the  distancing  of  God. 


502  THE  ALPINE  LAKE. 

The  more  we  discover  in  Nature,  the  more 
we  discover  of  God,  and  our  wider  discoveries 
enlarge  our  views  of  Him.  Every  year  He 
more  and  more  ceases  to  be  the  God 
of  vulgar  conception,  every  year  he  becomes 
grander  and  diviner.  In  truth  our  knov/ledge 
grows  up  to  Him,  in  proportion  as  he  ascends 
higher  and  higher,  above  our  mean  and 
unworthy  views.  As  the  light  of  knowledge 
grows  brighter,  He  becomes  more  manifest. 

There  is  an  Alpine  lake  high  up  and  remote 
from  the  ordinary  tourists'  well-trodden  ways, 
which  lies  at  the  base  of  a  grand  and  lofty 
mountain  range,  and  this  it  reflects  in  exquisite 
perfection.  At  misty  morning  time  I  have  visited 
this  hidden  lake,  and  then  seen  little  of  its  re- 
flecting beauty.  At  eventide  also  have  I  visited 
it,  when  lo,  in  its  azure  depths  every  broad  out- 
line, and  all  the  snowy  purity  of  the  over- 
crowning  mountains  have  been  glassed  below, 
and  have  been  softened  dovm  to  a  tender 
glory.  So  perhaps  is  it  with  the  presently 
visible  glory  of  the  Supreme  Being  in  nature. 
In  the  morning  time  of  misty  conception,  we 
see  little  of  Him  in  the  mirror,  while  at  the 
eventide  we  behold  Him  in  unspeakable  loveli- 
ness      In  our  cloudy  morning  the  reflection  is 


IDEA    OF   UNITY,    WHENCE    DERIVED?     503 

dim  and  indistinct,  at  eventide  the  mists 
have  dispersed,  light  is  unclouded,  and  we  dis- 
cern all  that  Nature  can  reveal  to  us  of  spot- 
less purity  and  towering  grandeur.  Rocky 
pinnacles  are  higher,  and  yet  seem  in  reflection 
nearer.  The  far-stretching  mountain  range  is 
loftier,  and  yet  is  more  distinct.  The  very  ful- 
ness of  light  that  elevates  and  distances  it, 
makes  the  image  truer,  and  its  grandeur  more 
manifest. 

In  reflecting  on  the  hypotheses  and  In- 
ferences of  evolutionists,  materialists,  and  phi- 
losophers, one  is  continually  disposed  to  inquire. 
How  happens  it  that  while  to  you  the  whole 
scheme  of  visible  things  is  so  plainly  evolved 
according  to  your  theory ;  that  while  Natural 
Selection,  and  Differentiation,  and  Equilibra- 
tion, or  whatever  else  be  your  factors,  are  so 
positively  working  as  you  declare ;  that  no 
explanation  is  offered  by  you  of  certain  ideas 
current  in  the  minds  of  thinking  men,  which 
can  bear  no  explicable  relation  at  all  to  an  ulti- 
mate reality,  if  not  to  the  Personal  God.  Here 
are  two  such  principal  ideas — Unity  and  Per- 
fection— let  us  for  a  moment  consider  them. 

Of  Unity  as  your  ultimate  scientific  reality  we 
have  already  spoken.     It  was  an  idea  known  in 


504  IDEA    OF   ULTIMATE    UNITY. 

certain  old  schools  of  philosophy,  but  we  regard 
it  now  as  the  ruling-  idea  of  the  day.  Whence 
do  we  derive  the  idea  of  Ultimate  Unity,  and 
how  do  we  shape  it,  if  it  be  not  the  ultimate 
idea  of  an  Ultimate  Personal  Unity  ?  Was  this 
idea  of  Unity  evolved  naturally  out  of  Multi- 
plicity? Could  any  number  of  minute  and 
immeasurably  prolonged  modifications  of 
species,  or  any  environments,  suggest  Unity?  I, 
as  a  student  of  your  books,  search  everywhere 
for  the  origin  of  this  important  principle.  In 
undivine  Evolution  I  see  everything  that  would 
tend  to  the  opposite  of  such  an  idea, — such  as 
endless  change,  enormous  lapses  of  time,  con- 
tinually wider  and  wider  divergences ;  dif- 
ferentiations amounting  to  a  multitude  which 
no  man  can  number ;  and  the  further  I  go  with 
you,  the  further  I  depart  from  Unity,  and  the 
nearer  I  approach  to  a  broader  and  boundless 
multiplicity.  While  I  stand  perplexed  and  con- 
founded in  the  midst  of  this  amazing  multiplicity, 
I  again  ask  whence  comes  to  you  as  well  as  to 
me  the  conception  of  the  Ultimate  Unity  ? 

Admit  for  the  present  that  the  whole  series 
of  varied  movements  which  are  commonly 
called  physical  forces,  can  be  reduced  by 
analysis  to  one  principle,  that  is  Motion ;  and 


THE    ULTIMATE  PEALITY  PERSONAL.     505 


that  Motion  is  equivalent  to  the  Ultimate  Unity. 
Then,  I  have  arrived  at  an  approach  to  the 
Prime  Mover,  but  you  only  at  an  impersonal 
Unity.  It  seems  absolutely  impossible  that 
your  conception  of  Unity  can  be  evolved  out  of 
perpetually  multiplying  multiplicity.  There 
must  necessarily  be  One  who  originated  in  you 
the  idea  of  oneness  ;  for  if  there  be  no  such 
One  personality  in  the  universe,  then  the  sup- 
posed ultimate  reality  of  your  evolution  can  be 
nothing  else  than  an  ultimate  unreality.  Let  all 
be  relative  except  the  last.  All  forces  are  rela- 
tive, all  motion  is  relative,  all  you  discover  con- 
cerning them  is  verified  by  Science;  but  the  final 
discovery  which  crowns  the  whole,  and  to  which 
everything  tends  is  unreal.  Every  path  in  a  vast 
labyrinth  ends  in  one  point,  all  wanderers  and 
searchers  are  coming  at  length  to  this  point, 
and  when  they  reach  it,  they  pronounce  it  to  be 
a  point  absolutely  and  for  ever  undiscoverable  ! 
Now  with  reference  to  Perfection ;  whence 
does  this  idea  come  into  our  minds  if  there  be 
no  ultimate  living  reality  corresponding  to  it  ? 
It  certainly  does  not  spring  from  things  around 
us,  for  they  are  all  proverbially  marked  by  im- 
perfections. Nothing  is  scientifically  perfect 
except  a  mathematical  figure  or  a  mathematical 


5o6  IDEA   OF  PERFECTION,  WHENCE  DERIVED  ? 

proof.  Everywhere  there  is  instability  and 
change ;  everywhere  *'  the  instabiHty  of  the 
homogeneous"  and  to  adopt  an  evolutionary 
phrase.  As  of  Unity,  so  of  Perfection  ;  whence 
comes  our  conception  of  it  ?  Is  it  evolved  out 
of  imperfections  ?  But  can  universal  imperfec- 
tion educe  the  idea  of  an  ultimate  Perfection  ? 

Highly  educated  men  possess  an  idea  of  moral 
and  physical  perfection.  No  one  will  deny 
this,  and  w^e  are  bound  to  repeat  the  question, 
whence  does  it  arise?  You  as  a  strict  evolu- 
tionist announce  that  religion,  like  everything 
else,  was  evolved  by  a  series  of  minute  modifi- 
cations. It  is  one  product  of  your  scheme  of 
evolution.  But  one  inalienable  element  of  all 
rational  Religion  is  the  dominant  idea  of  the 
Ultimate  Personal  Perfection.  This  beinor 
entirely  diverse  from  the  character  of  all  evolu- 
tionary processes,  and  diamictrically  opposed  to 
them,  whence  does  it  originate  ? 

On  the  other  side,  and  merely  as  one,  of  the 
fruits  of  Nature's  highest  Ministry,  we  can 
distinctly  imagine  an  origin  to  the  notion  of 
an  ultimate  objective  Perfection.  We  affirm 
that  no  imperfect  thing,  or  cause,  or  being, 
could  have  originated  it ;  that  it  is  the  precise 
correlate  of  a   Perfect   Personality,  to   w4iich 


THE  PERFECT  PERSONAL    UNITY.  507 


we  logically  assign  it.  In  so  doing  we  reason 
thus — A  perfect  cause  is  necessarily  intelligent, 
for  absence  of  intelligence  would  be,  by  so 
mucli,  a  serious  imperfection.  The  All-Perfect 
Unity  is  not  only  Himself  intelligent,  but  he 
acts  immediately  upon  our  intelligence,  and 
thereby  produces  a  distinct  conception  of  Him- 
self. This  action  of  His  upon  any  intelligence 
suffices  to  prove  His  presence  and  His  activity. 
Could  I  conceive  of  the  cessation  of  such 
action,  I  must  conceive  that  I  should  lose  the 
idea  of  objective  perfection  ;  just  as  surely  as  I 
know  that  I  should  be  in  total  darkness  if  I 
were  excluded  from  the  light  of  the  sun. 

While  the  action  of  the  All-Perfect  Person- 
ality is  operative  upon  my  intelligence,  I  derive 
some  radical  principles  of  the  philosophy  of 
religion  from  it.  My  love  of  perfection,  my  ad- 
miration for  it,  my  aversion  to  its  opposite,  my 
aspiration  towards  it,  m^y  hope  of  nearer 
approach  to  it,  and  a  full  communion  with  it,  all 
follow  logically  from  my  conviction  of  its  exist- 
ence, and  from  my  experience  of  its  influence 
upon  my  spirit.  Unless  all  spiritual  religion  be 
a  delusion  and  a  dream,  I  cannot  avoid  these 
conclusions,  and  even  were  it  all  a  delusion  and 
a   dream.  Natural  Evolution   must   be   a   still 


5o8  PERFECT  LOVE  ESSENTIAL. 

vainer  dream,  for  it  offers  no  explanation  of  the 
origin  of  an  idea  which  must  prove  its  destruc- 
tion, in  the  consideration  of  Ultimate  Realities. 
If  our  conception  of  the  Perfect  be  a  direct 
product  of  the  Imperfect,  then  the  Imperfect 
evolves  the  Perfect,  itself  continuing-  to  be  Im- 
perfect while  it  evolves  its  contrary ! 

Within  the  idea  of  a  living  personal  Perfec- 
tion is  included  the  element  of  Perfect  Love. 
This  one  essential  element  is,  more  than  many 
others,  destructive  of  any  theory  of  naked  Na- 
turalism. Pure  and  unbounded  love  is  far 
beyond  Science,  but  is  folded  up  in  the  highest 
philosophy  of  Nature.  Without  Divine  Love, 
Nature,  and  Man  as  part  of  Nature,  are 
meaningless  and  unintelligible.  Without  this, 
Nature  is  a  vast  ice-field,  and  the  higher  we 
rise,  the  more  only  do  we  see  of  its  chilling 
dreariness ;  extended  beneath  us  like  an  enor- 
mous glacier,  walled  with  massive  rocks,  and 
bounded  by  unalterable  rigidity. 

Is  there  such  a  being  as  the  Loving  Creator? 
An  Apostle  has  told  us  that  ''  God  is  Love." 
Nature  confirms  this  truth,  but  only  when  rightly 
interpreted.  Whence  do  we  derive  this  consoling 
conviction  ?  Perfect  Love  cannot  be  a  product 
of  Natural  Evolution.    It  cannot  be  an  acquisi- 


THE   CONSERVATION  OF  LOVE,  509 


tion  by  Natural  Selection.  It  would  be  a 
mockery  of  the  commonest  sense  to  endeavour 
to  discover  its  rudiments  in  the  beasts.  It  does 
not  exist  as  an  idea  in  any  being  below 
man,  and  if  he  does  not  derive  it  direcdy  from 
a  Divine  source,  it  is  impossible  to  account 
for  its  origin. 

This  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  when  fully  admitted  and  long  con- 
templated, it  is  the  spiritual  sun  which  enlightens 
the  soul  as  the  physical  sun  enlightens  Nature. 
And  it  must  be  embraced  by  natural  as  well  as 
all  other  theologies.  The  organic  world  is  by 
Love  held  in  being,  and  without  it  Natural  Sci- 
ence is  an  empty  knowledge  of  loveless  laws. 

The  greatest  force  in  the  universe  is  Divine 
Love.  The  Conservation  of  Love  is  the  loftiest 
Conservation  of  Force.  Every  spiritual  force 
may  be  ultimately  resolved  into  this ;  and  if  as 
a  pure  speculation  I  for  a  time  admit  that  all 
force  may  be  Will-Force,  as  a  still  higher  spec- 
ulation, rather  as  an  eternal  verity, — I  believe 
that  the  Universal  Will  is  in  some  way  Universal 
Love. 

A  conception  of  the  pre-eminence  of  Love 
appears  to  haunt  the  imagination  of  the  noblest 
poets,  and  if  I  venture  to  speak  of  Perfect  Love 


5 JO  LOVE   THE   OMNIPOTENT  FORCE. 


as  the  omnipotent  force  in  the  totality  of 
natural  as  well  as  spiritual  life,  if  I  venture  to 
connect  it  with  the  favourite  doctrine  of  the  Con- 
servation of  Force,  if  I  regard  it  as  distributed 
throughout  the  universe  in  manifold  forms,  I  do 
not  by  such  distribution  postulate  weakness  or 
dissipation  of  energy.  A  true  poet,  commonly 
called  an  Atheist,  will  aptly  illustrate  my 
meaning.     It  was  Shelley  who  thus  sang: — 

"  True  Love  in  this  differs  from  gold  and  clay, 
That  to  divide  is  not  to  take  away — 
Love  is  like  understanding,  that  grows  bright 
Gazing  on  many  truths  : 


If  you  divide  suffering  and  dross,  you  may 
Diminish  till  it  is  consumed  away  ; 
If  you  divide  pleasure  and  love  and  thought, 
Each  part  exceeds  the  whole  ;  and  we  know  not 
How  much,  while  any  yet  remains  unshared, 
Of  pleasure  may  be  gained,  of  sorrow  spared  : 
This  truth  is  that  deep  well,  whence  sages  draw 
The  uncnvied  light  of  hope.'* 


THE  HIGHEST  OBJECT  OF  LIFE.  511 


XXIII. 

EVIL   AND    GOODNESS.     THE    WORLD    OF 
SPIRITS. 

T  N  drawing  towards  a  conclusion,  I  may  be 
^  allowed  to  repeat  that  I  regard  the  know- 
ledge of  the  All- Perfect  One  as  the  highest 
object  of  the  life  that  now  is,  and  its  increase 
as  contributing  to  the  happiness  of  the  life  to 
come.  Compared  with  the  attainment  of  this, 
all  other  attainments  sink  into  insignificance. 
This  I  venture  to  assert  is  the  Chief  End 
of  Man — of  Man  truly  viewed  as  the  wonder 
and  glory  of  the  Universe. 

If  this  be  not  the  highest  object  of  human 
life,  little  does  it  matter  what  hypotheses  are 
broached  and  what  are  buried  ;  for  what 
are  scientific  reputations,  what  are  ecclesias- 
tical controversies,  but  the  bubbles  of  an 
agitated  stream  that  flows  in  troublous  course 
to    final    oblivion  ?     We    who    theorize    and 


512  VA/A^  THOUGHTS  PERISH. 

philosophize  are  the  children  of  to-day,  and 
to-morrow  other  theorizing-  and  philosophizing 
children  will  speculate  over  our  graves.  *'  In 
that  very  day  his  thoughts  perish,"  says 
the  Psalmist ;  and  with  this  conviction  there  is 
no  more  admonitory  sight  than  a  museum  of 
preserved  or  modelled  human  brains.  A  mar- 
vellous museum  of  this  kind  there  is  in  our 
Metropolis,  which  contains  the  finest  set  of 
cerebral  models  and  preparations  in  the  world, 
and  often  when  there  has  the  author  repeated 
to  himself  the  above  words  of  the  Psalmist. 

Look  at  those  cerebral  relics  ;  look  at  those 
models  fashioned  speedily  and  skilfully  after 
death.  All  the  thoughts  that  once  coursed 
through  those  convoluted  channels  during  life 
have  perished.  All  earthward  thoughts,  all 
plans  and  schemes  in  respect  of  self,  and 
time,  and  this  scene,  have  perished  ;  and  so 
must  the  like  thoughts  perish  of  the  living 
millions  who  are  now  passing  over  the  adjacent 
bridge  that  spans  the  river  outside  of  this 
museum.  A  million  of  men  cross  that  bridge 
in  one  month — probably  more  than  a  million  ; 
all  busy,  care-laden,  clever,  anxiously  scheming, 
gold-getting,  full  of  fears,  rich  in  hopes.  In 
months  to  come  many  of  these  men  miay  have 


HUMAN  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT.  513 

crossed  another  bridge  which  they  will  never 
repass.  Must  all  their  quick  and  lightning- 
like thoughts  perish  with  them  ?  All,  probably, 
that  have  no  reference  to  God. 

If  there  be  an  immortality  for  mind,  the 
thoughts  that  went  up  from  men  to  God 
will  with  Him  remain.  If  not,  like  sheep 
they  will  be  laid  in  the  grave  and  death  shall 
feed  upon  them.  And  if  this  be  their  final 
fate,  what  matter  whether  Nature  were  to 
them  beautiful  or  not ;  whether  she  seemed 
smiling  or  frowning ;  obstinately  dumb  or 
full  of  eloquence  ?  If  to  the  brutes  dead  men 
go,  what  reck  we  whether  or  no  from  the 
brutes  we  came  ?  If  there  be  no  God ;  if 
man  know  nothing  of  the  God  there  may  or 
may  not  be,  then  his  length  of  earthly  life 
is  unworthy  of  admeasurement.  If  he  be 
brute-born,  why  is  his  laborious  life  so  long? 
If  he  be  heaven-born,  why  is  it  so  short  ? 
If  only  brute-born,,  why  lives  he  so  much 
longer  than  the  creatures  from  which  he  has 
descended  ?  If  heaven-born  in  soul  and  spirit, 
why  lives  he  so  brief  a  space  ? 

Why  is  our  life  so  long  ?  It  is  hard  for  Na- 
turalism to  conjecture.  Why  is  it  so  short  ? 
It  is  possible  to  reply — Because  man's  future 


5 14      POWER  AND  VANITY  OF  HUMANITY. 

life  is  eternal.  Man's  centre  of  gravity  is 
not  here,  but  in  another  world,  and  there  he 
will  in  the  highest  sense  live.  A  kingdom 
of  mind  is  beyond  us,  and  to  it  we  are  all 
hastening ;  a  kingdom  of  pure  mind,  and  of 
holy  beings ;  a  kingdom  of  perfect  holiness 
and  pure  thoughtfulness.  It  is  already  peopled 
by  the  majority,  and,  as  the  ancients  ex- 
pressed it,  at  death  we  join  the  majority. 

That  kingdom  of  pure  mind  and  thought 
cannot  be  evolved  out  of  base  impurity  and 
reckless  thoughtlessness,  for  it  is  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Both  worlds  are  probably  one, 
but  sin  is  only  in  the  lower  of  the  two  worlds, 
and  cannot  exist  for  a  moment  in  the  higher. 
As  I  cross  this  crowded  bridge,*  I  look  up 
and  see  a  sunlit  and  unstained  sky, — while 
a  river  of  foul  impurity  runs  below  me  in  a 
tortuous  course  to  an  ocean  I  do  not  see,  and 
do  not  know. 

Perpetually  we  ask.  What  is  the  destiny  of 
this  multitudinous  human  race  ?  It  multiplies 
marvellously,  despite  fierce  struggles  for  exis- 
tence. Checks,  plagues,  pestilences,  and 
wars  notwithstanding,  it  overcrowds  cities, 
it  uproots  forests,  it  plants  houses  in  fresh 
*  London  Bridge. 


DESTINY  OF  THE  ENTIRE  RACE,  515 

gardens,  it  swarms  beyond  all  limits;  it  becomes 
a  terrible  and  increasing  mystery.  He  who 
tries  to  forecast  its  ultimate  destiny  is  utterly 
baffled.  Science  is  said  to  be  prevision,  but 
it  is  hopelessly  blind  here.  Utilitarianism  can 
only  reply  in  mockery,  men  should  be  useful 
to  each  other.  Perfectly  true  of  individuals,  but 
v/hat  may  be  the  use  of  entire  generations  and 
of  the  aggregate  race  ?  As  one  generation  dies 
to-day,  and  another  to-morrow,  and  another 
and  another,  till  the  last  man  shall  leave  this 
earth,  what  is  the  utility  of  the  sum  of  all 
generations  ?  When  the  last  man  is  evolved, 
and  there  is  an  end  of  evolution,  what  is  its 
issue  ?  This  earth  has  borne  and  sustained 
millions  after  millions  of  that  creature  which 
is  the  wonder  and  glory  of  the  universe  !  If  to 
no  high  purpose,  then,  considering  his  pains 
and  his  fears,  and  his  sufferings  and  his  dis- 
orders, and  his  sins '  and  crimes  and  death, 
let  us  change  the  phrase  and  say,  Man  is  the 
reproach  and  the  confusion  of  the  universe ! 

"  The  Survival  of  the  Fittest ! "  How  so,  if 
the  ultimate  reality  be  the  survival  of  the 
unhttest  creature  for  his  position  and  his 
potentialities,  that  perversity  could  have 
devised?     In  sowing  ruin  broad-cast,  he  has 


5i6  EVOLUTION  OF  MORAL  EVIL, 

done  infinite  mischief,  and  in  the  blackest  esti- 
mate he  has  been  a  murderer  from  the  begin- 
ning. Once  he  murdered  as  a  savage,  now  he 
murders  by  science.  He  is  vastly  more  malicious 
than  the  beasts,  a  hundredfold  more  revengeful, 
a  thousandfold  more  diabolical,  yet  he  is  the 
fairest  fruit  of  Natural  Selection  !  This  ultimate 
humanity  of  organic  evolution  is  wise  in  science 
and  abominable  in  wickedness.  He  learns 
Nature's  sciences  and  then  triumphs  in  multi- 
plied murders  !  Ah  !  but  this  is  too  severe — 
this  is  an  unwarrantable  charge.  Indeed ! 
Well,  but  if  man's  soul  comes  by  Evolution, 
whence  comes  his  sin  ?  If  you  evolve  every 
organic  existence,  you  must  evolve  all  it 
does.  You  bring  all  out  of  a  fiery  cloud  ;  you 
bring,  therefore,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Newton, 
and  all  the  sons  of  Science  and  Art,  from  the 
same  fiery  cloud;  you  must  also  bring  every 
murderer  since  Cain,  every  man  whose  name 
is  a  token  of  infamy,  every  human  being 
unworthy  of  the  name  of  Man. 

So  long  as  you  limit  your  evolutionary 
hypothesis  to  the  lower  forms  of  life,  its  difficul- 
ties do  not  appear  so  vast ;  nor  do  they  appear 
insurmountable  in  the  inferior  kingdoms  of 
living  things ;  but  when  arriving  at  Man,  you 


MORAL  EVIL  UNEXPLAINED.  517 

evolve  him  wholly  by  natural  factors  :  we  must 
look  at  the  evil  as  well  as  at  the  good.  How 
do  you  evolve  the  evil  along  with  the  good  ? 
Natural  Selection  professedly  preserves  bene- 
ficial variations  ;  how  then  without  a  denial  of 
evil  do  you  account  for  the  injurious  ?  Your 
natural  factors  are  always  improving,  and  from 
the  primeval  germ  you  get  the  human  marvel. 
But  whence  do  you  derive  his  villany,  his  terrific 
passions,  and  his  unutterable  crimes  ? 

True  that  these  questions  may  be  retorted 
upon  Theistic  or  Christian  creeds,  but  with  a 
very  different  result.  We  also  can  decide 
nothing  but  the  existence  and  persistence  of 
moral  evil ;  but  we  do  not  evolve  it  along  with 
the  good,  and  by  means  of  the  same  factors. 
With  us  it  is  a  mystery,  with  you  a  contradiction. 
Moreover,  Natural  Evolution  does  not  afford 
any  hope  of  its  elimination,  but  Christianity 
does.  By  your  factors  it  comes  and  grows  and 
multiplies  indefinitely;  and,  however  many  other 
factors  you  may  imagine,  evil  will  evolutionally 
accompany  them  all,  and  display  their  inability 
and  defy  their  sufficiency.  We  cannot  shut 
our  eyes  to  moral  evil.  One  sentence  will  com- 
prise our  hope — ''  For  this  purpose  was  the 
Son   of  God   manifested  that    He   might   de- 


51 8         CHRIST  THE  DESTROYER  OF  EVIL. 

stroy  the  works  of  the  Devil."  In  Him,  we 
believe,  is  the  only  clue  to  this  perplex- 
ing- labyrinth.  Through  innumerable  ages  to 
come  He  will  be  slowly  yet  surely  eliminating- 
evil.  Long  ages  ago  he  began  this  great  and 
Divine  task ;  during  ages  to  which  one  human 
generation  is  as  a  moment  of  time,  He  is  pro- 
ceeding with  his  task  ;  but  this  work  of  elimina- 
tion is  as  slow  as  the  passage  of  geologic 
changes.  One  inch  of  rock,  one  thin  layer  of 
solid  coal  demands  the  decadence  of  a  broad 
primeval  forest,  and  the  decay  of  myriads  of 
plants.  Perhaps  the  elimination  of  evil  and 
the  resultant  product  of  good  is  as  tardy  as 
the  processes  of  earth-building,  and  perhaps 
much  tardier. 

I  have  previously  alluded  to  the  hypothetical 
resolution  of  all  forces  into  Will-force,  and  have 
admitted  this  as  a  grand,  if  not  a  perfectly  phi- 
losophical conclusion.  Let  us  admit  it  as  a 
provisional  hypothesis,  in  the  same  manner  as 
Mr.  Darwin  proposes  Pangenesis.  Universal 
Will-force  is  not  only  a  grand  conception,  but 
it  clearly  realizes  the  fulfilment  of  the  prayer — 
Thy  will  be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  in  Heaven  ! 

Let  us  further  carry  out  the  supposition  of  one 
Omnific  Will  in  both  kingdoms;   the  material 


CORRELATIONS  OF  SPIRITUAL  FORCE,      sk 


and  the  spiritual.  You  find  continual  correla- 
tions in  the  material  kingdom.  In  heat  you  find 
a  manifestation  of  force,  which  may  be  changed 
into  light,  or  into  electricity.  In  life  you  find 
a  manifestation  of  force  which,  as  you  think, 
may  be  transformed  from  heat,  or  from  light, 
or  from  electricity  into  the  organism  you  ex- 
amine. Why  not  the  same  process,  the  same 
Interchange  in  the  Kingdom  of  Spirit  ?  In  this 
man's  mind  there  is  force  of  one  kind ;  in  that 
man's  mind  force  of  another ;  and  in  a  third 
man's  mind,  still  another.  What  are  these  but 
mental  correlations  ?  What  are  these  but  mani- 
festations of  the  primal  force  in  different  con- 
ditions ?  Do  you  find  one  evangelist  or  apostle 
historical,  another  logical,  a  third  loving,  a 
fourth  bold,  a  fifth  speculative  ?  Do  you  find 
one  believer  in  God  display  one  cast  of  thought, 
and  a  second  another  ?  What  are  these  but 
effluxes  of  the  One  Supreme  Force,  working 
out  the  manifestations  of  mind  according  to 
His  own  plan  ? 

To  what  end  are  all  these  manifestations 
tending  ?  To  this  end — the  Education  of  Spirit ; 
the  fitting  of  Spirit  for  the  highest  ultimate 
excellence.  If  you  find  Evolution  in  thin^'-s 
natural,  I  find  it  in  things  spiritual.     Moreover, 


520  THE    MILLENNIUM   OF   MIND. 

both  evolutions  are  directed  to  one  final  issue. 
Perfection  is  not  the  accidental  or  intermediate, 
but    the  latest    result.      It  is  the    flower ;    and 
cannot  show  itself  before  the  root,  the  stalk,  the 
leaf.     An  irr.posing  millennium  of  minds  does 
not  come  by  sudden  and  forced  marches ;   but 
by  slow — almost  infinitely  graduated  growths. 
All  forces  are  in  action  to  bring  this  to  pass, 
all  ages   contribute  something  to  it;  but  the 
One  Spirit  alone  is  producing  it,  and  no  sub- 
ordinate will   can  either  antedate  or  delay  it. 
Come  it  must ;   come  it  shall.     It  is  the  beau- 
tiful flower  ;  but  who  shall  say  when  and  where 
it  will    blow  ?      Until   then,    the  whole   Crea- 
tion  groaneth  and  travaileth.     Unto  this  end 
all  Nature  ministers  in  her  highest  Ministry  ; 
all  Grace  strives  with  irresistible  predominance. 
All  correlations  of  Spiritual  force  are  bringing 
it  to  pass  ;  even  the  weakest  and  the  slightest, 
even  the   most  subtle,  and  as  men  think,  the 
most  evanescent.     The  forces  of  good  do  not 
die   out  with  the   subordinate  operants ;    they 
simply  change.      The  manifesting  instruments 
of  to-day    may    apparently    perish  ;     but    the 
amount  of  surviving  force  is  imperishable,  and 
passes  into  other  actors.     Not  one  molecule  of 
good  is  ever  lost,  for  it  is  eternal  in  right  of  the 


GOODNESS  A  CONSTANT  QUANTITY.        521 

eternity  of  its  Divine  Source.  Flesh  is  dis- 
solved, but  not  Spirit.  Evil  is  transmuted,  but 
not  goodness  ;  for  that  is  an  ultimate  and  indis- 
persible  quantity.  You  cannot  add  to  it ;  you 
cannot  diminish  it.  You  need  not  add  to  it,  for 
it  is  sufficient ;  you  cannot  lessen  it,  for  it  is 
indissoluble. 

Moreover,  it  is  perpetually  in  motion.  The 
courses,  the  complexities,  the  seeming  contra- 
dictions of  its  motions,  you  cannot  understand. 
How  should  _>'(??/,  an  atom,  a  mere  passing  actor, 
comprehend  these  ?  How  should  an  insignificant 
part  comprehend  the  whole  body  ?  You  may 
possibly  perplex,  but  you  cannot  explain.  Of 
this  vast  scheme  of  evolution  you  see  but  one 
phase  ;  of  that  you  may  speak,  on  that  you  may 
reflect ;  but  to  unfold  the  entire  plan,  to  com- 
pute its  measures,  to  predict  its  future  phases, 
to  antedate  its  final  issue,  is  beyond  any  created 
intelligence. 

Do  you  ask  how  any  scheme  of  Grace  or 
Spiritual  effluence  can  comport  with  the  in- 
variableness  of  the  laws  of  Nature  ?  Do  you 
object  that  this  is  a  commixture  of  after-thought 
with  an  original  purpose  ?  Nature  herself  will 
in  abundant  types  show  you  illustrations.  For 
example,  you  look  down  from  a  lofty  precipice 


522  RECEPTIVENESS  OF  NATURE. 

upon  a  Still  and  calm  lake  environed  by  moun- 
tains, and  you  see  that  the  beautiful  land-locked 
lake  is  evermore  the  same  in  its  outline,  and 
never  changes  its  form  or  its  boundaries.  A 
summer  wind  alone  ruffles  its  calm  surface,  or 
possibly  a  winter  storm  raises  it  by  wind  and 
disturbs  it  by  tempest.  Afterwards,  however, 
it  is  still  the  same ;  it  has  neither  lost  nor 
gained  in  dimensions  or  in  depth.  It  returns  to 
itself,  and  it  finally  wears  its  abiding  azure. 
Ts  it  then  a  constant  and  unchangeable  thing  ? 
— a  feature  of  Nature  which  thousands  of  past 
years  have  not  influenced,  and  which  thou- 
sands of  future  years  cannot  influence  ?  So  it 
may  appear  for  a  moment ;  but  now  note  that  a 
far-born  river  is  continually  rushing  towards 
it  and  flowing  into  it,  and  bringing  to  it  distant 
materials,  drawn  from  inaccessible  heights  and 
unseen  depths  ;  poured  every  minute  into  its 
waters  together  with  the  unresisted  river  itself ; 
yet,  still  the  placid  lake  seems  to  be  unchanged. 
Still  the  stern  mountains  which  frame  it  are 
unaltered  ;  still  they  retain  and  hold  their  com- 
mitted charge  in  unmovable  guardianship. 
Where  go  all  the  incoming  waters  with  their 
included  freight  ?  They  fall  into  the  lake  be- 
held by  the  spectator  from  the  lofty  eminence, 


DIVINE  GOODNESS  A  CONSTANT  SUM.      523 


but  they  do  not  perceptibly  modify  one  line  of 
the  surrounding  shores  ;  they  do  not  move  one 
solid  custodian  from  his  eternal  watch-tower. 
In  like  manner,  amidst  all  the  apparent  invari- 
ableness  of  the  broad  expanse  of  Nature  be- 
neath us,  there  may  be  no  traceable  change  of 
law,  or  position,  or  order;  all  may  be  appa- 
rently still  and  undisturbed  as  in  the  unknown 
ages.  Nevertheless,  all  the  while  the  river  of 
Grace  may  be  flowing  into  it,  and  mingling  with 
its  azure  waters,  and  conveying  stores  from 
heights  unseen  and  unsealed  by  any  of  mortal 
race  ! 

Analogy  may  carry  us  yet  one  step  farther. 
In  physics  it  is  a  fundamental  doctrine,  as 
already  stated,  that  the  amount  of  Force  is 
constant.  Nothing  can  be  added  to  it  or  sub- 
tracted from  it.  May  we  not,  as  a  moral  coun- 
terpart to  this  doctrine,  suggest  another — that 
Divine  Goodness  is  a  constant  quantity  in  the  uni- 
vc7^se?  Does  this  appear  too  strange  for 
reception  ?  Yet  why  should  not  this  also  be  a 
great  and  pregnant  Spiritual  principle  ?  Good- 
ness is  the  attribute  of  Deity  ;  it  is  essential  in 
God,  and  as  eternal  and  immutable  as  Himself. 
Every  good  and  perfect  gift  is  from  Him  ;  there 
is  nothing  good  without  Him,  and  nothing  good 


524        EVOLUTION  OF  DIVINE   GOODNESS. 

which  does  not  tend  towards  Him.  The  phy- 
sicist announces  that  no  additional  force  is 
ever  created ;  it  is  but  a  step  in  another  direc- 
tion to  affirm  that  no  additional  Goodness  is 
ever  created.  All  goodness  that  exists  miust 
have  existed  as  long*  as  its  source.  If  there 
had  ever  been  less  of  it,  there  must  have  been 
less  of  a  Divine  attribute.  If  there  should  ever 
be  more  of  it,  there  would  be  an  unaccountable 
excess.  God  has  in  all  time  been  perfect 
goodness,  in  no  future  time  then  can  He  be 
more.  His  goodness,  like  Himself,  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever. 

It  is  the  motions,  the  changes,  the  evolutions 
of  the  goodness  that  we  recognize  in  all  great 
moral  phenomena.  Successive  ages  display  it 
in  things,  and  persons  created  by  Him  to  dis- 
play it.  The  transformations  of  this  primal 
moral  force  make  up  all  human  history.  Con- 
template human  history  on  a  grand  scale, 
grasp  it  in  adequate  magnitudes,  and  in  suitable 
proportions,  and  you  have  the  long  series  of 
Divine  manifestations  in  various  transformations 
of  goodness.  Here  we  see  more  of  it,  there 
less,  and  far  back  in  the  darkness  of  the  past, 
still  less.  Yet  we  never  lose  sight  of  it  on  the 
whole,  if  we  do  not  restrict  it  by  too  minute 


PERFECT  GOODNESS    TRIUMPHANT.        525 

measurements,  and  by  an  inapplicable  scale. 
Like  unto  light  in  the  sun,  it  may  appear  to 
the  vulgar  eye  to  grow  from  the  faint,  pale, 
early  streak  in  the  east,  until  it  shines  forth 
with  full  splendour  at  noonday.  But  all  men 
know  that  this  is  a  deceptive  appearance.  There 
is  always,  so  far  as  we  can  conjecture,  the  same 
amount  of  light  in  the  solar  photosphere  ;  so 
far  as  we  know,  there  is  always  a  constant  sum 
of  Goodness  in  the  Divine  Being. 

Such  a  conception  is  fertile  in  satisfaction  to 
the  perplexed  speculator  of  the  course  of  man. 
All  moral  darkness  must  in  due  periods  fly 
before  this  benevolent  light.  By  whatever 
names  we  choose  to  call  this  darkness — whether 
sin,  or  suffering,  or  pain,  or  death  ;  by  what- 
ever nomenclature  of  creeds  we  baptize  it — or 
by  whatever  nomenclature  of  physics  or  morals, 
the  entire  darkness  must  depart.  It  is  inevit- 
ably doomed  to  defeat  and  disappearance. 
Perfect  Goodness  must  in  the  end  be  as  visible 
as  it  is  real. 

Read  the  dim  roll  of  Divine  Providence  by 
the  light  of  this  doctrine,  and  it  at  once  be- 
comes to  our  inward  eye  an  illumined  record. 
Goodness  is  never  altogether  absent,  though 
oftentimes  it  has  been  obscured.     Clouds  and 


526  EVIL  A   DIMINISHING  QUANTITY. 

darkness  have  long  hung  round  its  royal  throne, 
but  the  King  has  ever  been  seated  upon  it. 
The  inexhaustible  fountain  of  Goodness  has 
ever  been  pouring  out  its  running  waters,  and 
these  have  a,t  one  time  and  at  another  flowed  in 
dispersed  rills  and  unobserved  channels ;  yet 
these  pure  waters  have  never  been  wholly 
wasted.  The}^  will  all  flow  finally  together  into 
the  undiminished  ocean  of  boundless  good. 

The  various  modes  of  motion  of  this  primal 
force  are  seen  by  us  in  different  dispensations, 
adapted  to  different  media,  and  to  numerous 
Spiritual  elements.  "  The  earth  is  full  of  Thy 
goodness," — the  earth  physically,  as  Nature; 
the  spirits  of  varied  existences,  as  Mind.  But 
Goodness  is  the  prime  force  ;  against  what  is 
it  exerted  ?  Undoubtedly  against  Evil  in  all 
shapes  and  in  all  places.  Then,  is  Evil  another 
force,  and  comes  it  from  another  author  ?  No 
Science,  no  Philosophy,  no  Theology,  will  ever 
resolve  this  riddle  to  man,  in  his  present  con- 
dition. One  belief  alone  may  we  rest  in,  that 
if  Goodness  be  a  constant  quantity.  Evil  is  a 
diminishing  quantity.  There  cannot  be  two 
eternal  and  equipollent  opposites.  There  may 
be  two  powerful  principles  in  the  universe,  at 
war  the  one  with  the  other  for  uncounted  ages ; 


GOODNESS   THE  ABSOLUTE   UNITY.         527 

but  there  cannot  be  two  ultimate  Forces.  What 
is  impossible  in  physics,  is  perhaps  equally  so 
in  morals.     The  absolute  unity  is  Goodness. 

Assuredly  the  human  mind  can  scarcely  enter- 
tain a  more  inspiriting  thought  than  that  in 
itself  it  composes  a  part — an  important  part  of 
the  Universe  of  Mind  which  is  in  perpetual 
progress  towards  the  knowledge  of  perfect 
Goodness.  It  may  thus  acquire  a  conception 
of  its  own  immense  significance,  despite  the 
present  apparent  insignificance  of  man.  The 
lower,  the  imbruted,  the  inherently  vicious  and 
obstinately  dark  minds  of  our  race,  may  be  all 
sinking  in  the  opposite  direction,  from  darkness 
to  darkness,  from  various  degrees  of  determined 
wickedness  to  ultimate  diabolism.  This,  in- 
deed, is  sorrowful  and  dreadfully  depressing. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  while  this  would  lead 
us  to  the  borders  of  despair,  let  us  look  on  the 
reverse,  the  hopeful  and  the  bright  aspects  of 
God-loving  humanity.  What  bounds  shall  we 
set  to  our  hopeful  anticipations  of  its  highest 
advances  in  time  and  in  eternity  ?  Every  good 
spirit — every  pure  and  purifying  intelligence  is, 
or  may  be,  already  upon  its  destined  march 
towards  the  desired  end  of  knowing  the  Omni- 
potent  and   the   All-loving   Being.       Angelic 


52  8  INVISIBLE  LINKS  OF  UNITY. 

intelligences  are  before  us,  but  only  before  us 
in  the  same  direction.  Disembodied  saints  are 
before  us,  but  only  in  time.  All  heavenly 
beings  are  before  us,  but  only  in  attainable 
sanctity  and  corresponding  knowledge.  Other, 
and  diversely  constituted  beings  in  other,  and 
differently  conditioned  worlds,  are,  as  we  may 
well  presume,  before  us,  but  only  in  respect  of 
their  different  conditions.  The  one  purpose  of 
all-thinking  creation  may  be  in  active  opera- 
tion, though,  in  very  varied  stages  of  develop- 
ment, towards  the  common  grand  and  glorious 
issue — the  Knowledge  of  the  Divine.  This  may 
be  the  invisible  chain  that  joins  all  holy  souls — 
that  keeps  them  in  their  several  orders,  and 
binds  them  to  their  several  positions.  This  may 
be  the  electric  chain  along  which  traverse  the 
unseen,  yet  everfelt  forces  of  intellectual  vitality. 
And  in  this  view  we  may  hope  to  account 
for  many  otherwise  insoluble  perplexities.  The 
long  and  intensely  distressing  sway  of  evil  may 
be  the  means  of  education  to  many,  to  us  cre- 
dibly, to  others  possibly.  The  slow  diminution 
of  evil  may  be  a  difficult  and  painful  lesson  to 
humanity.  How  and  whence  it  came  into  the 
course  of  our  teaching  let  us  not  attempt  to 
inquire,  for,  during  our  days  of  earthly  tuition, 


OMNIPOTENCE   OF  GOODNESS.  529 

all  inquiry  must  be  fruitless.  Let  us  only  feel 
assured  that  it  is  a  medium  of  knowledge.  Why 
should  we  dare  to  assume  that  we  could  have 
been  taught  without  it  ?  And  if  we  are  taught 
by  it,  why  should  we  dare  to  pronounce  that  it 
might  have  been  avoided  ?  And  if  it  could 
have  been  avoided,  shall  we  dare  to  affirm  that 
we  should  have  been  as  well  instructed  in  the 
omnipotence  of  Goodness,  as  we  shall  be  by  the 
conquest  of  Evil  ?  The  glory  of  an  earthly 
conqueror  is  shown  in  his  visible  victory.  Is  it 
otherwise  with  the  Divine  Victor  ?  When  do  wf 
crown  our  heroes  with  laurels — is  it  in  theii 
repose  and  inactivity  ?  When  does  a  nation's 
acclaim  applaud  its  warriors — is  it  when 
there  has  been  no  combat  ?  When  did 
Caesar  pass  through  Rome  in  triumph — was  it 
before  or  after  the  signal  victory  ?  True,  war 
could  have  been  well  spared — but  then  the 
public  triumph  must  also  have  been  spared. 
Is  there  nothing  analogous  to  this  in  the 
highest  ?  Let  us  listen,  and  again  we  hear : 
"  For  this  purpose  the  Son  of  God  was  mani- 
fested, that  he  might  destroy  the  works  of 
the  devil." 

Knowledge  of  the  Divine  may  be  communi- 
cated to  higher  intelligences  without  the  inter- 

34 


530      KINGDOM  OF  SANCTIFIED  REASON. 

vention  of  evil.  They  may  be  so  conditioned 
as  to  receive  truth  more  directly ;  it  may  shine 
to  them  without  passing-  through  any  refracting 
medium ;  but  it  is  the-  same  heavenly  light 
that  shines  either  through  or  apart  from  all 
refraction.     God  is  one,  and  truth  is  one. 

Different  degrees  and  infinite  diversities  of 
attainment  must  necessarily  characterize  all 
minds  which  are  in  united  motion  towards  the 
central  truth.  As  there  are  varied  planetary 
systems,  varied  and  distinct  orbits  for  individual 
stars,  so  are  there  distinct  orbits  for  individual 
souls,  and  perhaps  for  particular  communities 
of  spiritual  existence.  Still  every  individual 
may  be  separately  engaged  in  taking  up,  and 
in  pursuing  his  own  line  of  learning.  And  in 
this  manner  there  may  exist  an  Eternal  Con- 
tinuity of  Knowledge — eternal  in  each  indi- 
vidual— Universal  in  the  whole  kingdom  of 
Sanctified  Reason.  The  mythological  fable 
that  represented  one  of  the  fatal  sisters  as  ever 
cutting  the  threads  of  human  life,  may  find  its 
realization  in  the  death  of  the  human  body,  but 
no  Fate  shall  snap  the  threads  of  higher  Know- 
ledge. They  shall  be  drawn  out  continuously 
and  concurrently  with  the  persistence  of  spirit- 
ual life. 


THE  ANGELIC    WORLD.  531 

Natural  Science  does  not  recognize  the  great 
World  of  Spirits,  but  it  cannot  deny  its  exis- 
tence. It  helps  the  spiritual  man  upwards  to 
the  Spiritual,  the  Materialist  downward  to  the 
Material ;  it  concurs  with  the  determining  bias 
of  the  mind ;  it  elevates  the  believer  to  God,  it 
confirms  the  determined  Atheist.  Never  has  it, 
and  never  can  it  adduce  any  valid  argument 
against  the  great  World  of  Spirits,  because  they 
live  beyond  its  province,  and  can  neither  by  it 
be  revealed,  or  by  it  dispersed.  There  is  a 
world  high  above  Science,  high  as  the  sun 
above  this  earth.  For  this  world  Faith  is  pre^ 
vision,  as  Science  has  been  called  prevision. 

There  is  a  wonderful  World  of  Spirits,  and 
there  are  hierarchies  of  Ministering  Spirits, 
who,  as  I  believe,  influence  man  through 
Nature,  and  by  it  appeal  to  his  highest  capa- 
cities. A  vast  majority  of  good  men  in  all 
generations  have  believed  in  the  existence  of 
these  hierarchies  ;  but  if  they  exist,  why  are 
they  not  in  communicative  sympathy  with  us  ? 
Surely  they  do  not  look  down  upon  us  merely 
like  pitiless  stars  on  a  frosty  night;  surely 
since  so  many  of  that  disembodied  multitude 
have  once  been  men,  that  in  ascending  to 
celestial    regions,  they  have  left  a  long   trail 


532  ANGELIC  INFLUENCE. 

of  light  to  mark  their  upward  way.  Surely 
they  form  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses,  who, 
though  they  sit  aloof,  and  apart  from  us,  in- 
tently watch  our  earthly  course,  and  note  with 
deep  interest  whether  we  ran  our  earthly  race 
with  patience  and  zeal.  What  the  stars  did  in 
fable,  these  do  in  fact.  They  influence  our  con- 
duct aright,  and  encourage  us  by  their  unseen 
but  not  unfelt  presence.  They  make  their 
helpfulness  appreciable  to  our  consciousness. 
They  inspire  us  with  hope,  they  are  ever  tar- 
rying for  us  upon  the  mountain-top,  they 
become  the  companions  of  our  solitude,  the 
secret  source  of  unspoken  joy  to  the  lonely 
wayfarer. 

They  are  the  ministers  by  w^hich  Nature 
ministers  of  her  best  to  us.  Some  of  her 
whispers  they  interpret  to  us  in  audible  speech, 
others  they  leave  uninterpreted,  even  while  we 
desire  and  demand  their  meaning.  They  know 
Nature  incomparably  better  than  we  do,  for  our 
highest  Science  is  their  alphabet.  By  virtue  of 
their  purification  and  exaltation  they  perceive 
causations  and  effects,  relations  and  activities, 
changes  and  characters  which  are  hidden  to  us. 
Sin  does  not  becloud  them,  suftering  does  not 
distract  them,  death  does  not  confront  them, 


ANGELIC  PRIVILEGES.  533 

the  grave  is  behind  them.  Before  them  are 
the  infinite  potentiaHties  of  an  endless  life  ! 

They  remember  us  always  when  they  re- 
member what  they  themselves  once  were. 
They  help  us  in  our  earnest  efforts  to  become 
what  they  now  are.  With  the  speed  of  light 
they  are  able  to  be  present  at  our  side.  With 
the  speed  of  thought  they  interfuse  their  holi- 
ness into  our  thoughts.  They  shine  into  our 
earthly  homes  like  morning  beams,  and  they 
beautify  our  departure  in  death  with  the 
heavenly .  splendour  of  an  evening  Alp-glow. 
On  our  snow-white  shrouds  they  shed  the  pris- 
matic splendours  of  their  acquired  glory. 

Blessed  and  blessing  hierarchies  !  Not  one 
of  your  innumerable  cohorts  can  be  subject  to 
annihilation.  You  multiply  by  human  death, 
you  increase  by  Spiritual  Selection,  you  obtain 
liberty  through  the  grave,  you  gain  light  by 
looking  upon  the  countenance  of  the  Divine ! 
Not  one  single  act  of  your  beneficent  ministry 
to  man  is  altogether  lost ;  every  one  is  a 
celestial  force.  You  in  your  beneficent  activity 
are  the  indestructible  forces  of  the  universe  of 
the  blest ! 

You  have  often  been  sung,  often  pictured, 
often  sculptured,    and  often  misapprehended, 


534  ANGELIC  PRESENCE. 

and  not  seldom  vulgarized.  Distorted  Science 
lia.s  denied  you,  scornful  Naturalism  has  de- 
rided you,  foolish  Superstition  has  degraded 
you.  Nevertheless,  you  live,  and  you  live 
for  us.  Were  cur  eyes  duly  purged,  we  should 
behold  you  daily ;  were  our  ears  rightly  attuned, 
we  should  hourly  listen  to  you  in  the  natural 
melodies  of  rill  and  stream,  and  river,  and 
ocean  ;  in  the  sighings  of  wandering  winds,  in 
the  labyrinthine  mazes  of  the  most  perfect 
music  ;  in  that  rhythm  which  attends  upon  all 
motion,  and  which  to  those  who  have  ears  to 
hear,  is  the  true  and  entrancing  music  of  the 
spheres ! 

One  of  the  most  prominent  doctrines  of 
Modern  Physical  Science,  is  Natural  Con- 
tinuity. "We  shall  see,"  proclaimed  Mr. 
Grove  in  his  address  on  this  subject  to  the 
British  Association  in  1866,  "that  the  more  we 
investigate,  the  more  we  find  that  in  existing 
ohenomena,  graduation  from  the  like  to  the 
unlike  prevails,  and  in  the  changes  which  take 
place  in  time,  gradual  process  is,  and  appa- 
rently must  be,  the  course  of  Nature."  "  It 
would  seem  as  if  the  phenomenon  of  gradual 
change  obtained  towards  the  remotest   objects 


PHYSICAL    CONTINUITY.  53S 


with  which  we  are  at  present  acquainted,  and 
that  the  further  we  penetrate  into  space,  the 
more  unlike  to  those  we  are  acquainted  with, 
become  the  objects  of  our  examination — sun, 
planets,  meteorites,  worlds  similarly  though  not 
identically  constituted,  stars  differing  from  each 
other,  and  from  our  system,  and  nebulae  more 
remote  in  space,  and  differing  more  and  more 
in  their  character  and  constitution." — There 
are,  say  the  philosophers  of  this  school,  no 
breaks  in  Nature,  no  new  creations,  all  is 
gradual  succession,  ceaseless  Evolution.  Such 
is  the  doctrine  which  has  so  often  been  consi- 
dered in  particular  aspects  in  the  preceding 
pages  of  this  book. 

I  have  ventured  to  project  thoughts  of  this 
kind  into  the  supersensible  kingdom  of  ex- 
istence. My  final  speculation  in  this  direction 
is  this — If  there  exist  Continuity  in  the  sense 
of  gradual  succession,  throughout  all  Nature, 
why  not  carry  the  doctrine  one  step  further  and 
suggest  the  probability  of  Angelic  and  Human 
Continuity  ? 

When  I  am  assured  by  luminous  teachers  of 
Natural  and  Physical  Science  that  they  cannot 
draw  strongly  separating  lines  between  the 
various   provinces  of  the  whole   Kingdom  of 


536    HUMAN  AND  ANGELIC  CONTINUITY. 

Nature ;  that  the  solid  becomes  gradually 
gaseous,  that  the  dead  becomes  gradually 
the  living,  that  in  the  living  there  are  only 
successive  gradations  of  change,  and  that 
between  even  the  vegetable  and  the  animal 
there  is  no  strong  line  of  demarcation ; — then 
I  venture  to  aver  that  I  am  in  no  want  of  accord- 
ance with  the  Consensus  of  modern  teachers  of 
Science,  if  I  advance  one  step  higher,  to  the 
doctrine  of  Human  and  Angelic  Continuity. 

Why  should  not  the  highest  development  of 
Manhood  be  continuous  with  the  lowest  con- 
dition of  Angelic  existence  ?  There  is  here 
indeed  a  break — a  dark  gulph.  Death  is  the 
strong"  line  of  demarcation  between  the  hicrhest 
man  and  the  lowest  angel.  Yet  death  is  but 
transition ;  it  is  not  a  fixed  but  a  passing  con- 
dition, at  least  for  the  good.  Death  is  indeed 
a  severe  pang,  the  severest  that  organic  nature 
knows.  I  dread  it  in  direct  proportion  to  my  cul- 
ture; for  increasing  sensibility  to  the  higher  in-* 
fluences  of  Nature  becomes  increasing  suscepti- 
bility to  her  great  changes.  So  death  is  the 
terror  as  well  as  the  term  of  my  terrestrial  life. 
But  it  is  not  a  final  demarking  line  ;  the  first 
wave  of  the  ocean  of  Eternity  will  efface  it  like 
a  sand- mark,  and  efface  it  for  ever 


FINAL  AND  IMMORTAL    UNITY.         Si^J 


I  have  stood  at  the  death-beds  of  good,  of 
saintly  men,  whose  painful  infirmities  have  at 
that  hour  vanished  in  the  manifested  glory  of  the 
solemn  transition.  They  were  not  men  of  Science, 
but  they  were  men  of  Faith,  and  the  highest 
Christian  Faith  unites  men  more  lastingly  than 
the  highest  Natural  Science.  I  have  seen 
hoary  and  holy  age  shade  off  into  youthful 
immortality ;  I  have  heard  dying  whispers 
merge  into  angelic  song.  On  the  verge  of  the 
cold  grave  I  have  said  to  myself, — if  there  be 
two  worlds.  Faith  throws  a  bridge  across  the 
intervening  gulph,  and  makes  them  one.  The 
great  unity  of  all  things  natural  is  the  pre- 
figurement  of  somewhat  still  nobler,  the  Unity 
of  the  Sons  of  God.  Out  of  all  nations  and 
kindreds,  and  peoples,  and  tongues,  this  grand 
spiritual  unity  is  gradually  growing  and  becom- 
ing realized.  Nothing  in  earth  or  heaven  can 
hinder  its  accomplishment,  for  earth  fore- 
shadows it,  and  heaven  matures  it.  A  million 
of  years  may  not  bring  it  to  pass  ;  nay,  may 
only  evolve  one  of  its  phases.  But  a  million 
of  years  are  a  moment  to  Him  who  is  assuredly 
bringing  it  to  pass ;  and  since  He  has  en- 
dowed me  with  His  own  immortality,  a  million 
of  years   shall   be   to  me   in   my  patient  yet 


538  PERSONAL    THOUGHTS. 


ardent  Faith  what  they  are  to  Him  in  his  un  • 
ceasing  activity.     I  have  but   to  wait,  admire 
and     adore.       Indestructible    and     irresistible 
energies    are    in    the    Omnipotent    One.     My 
name  and  my  fame   must  soon  utterly  perish. 
The  name  and  fame  of  the  princes  of  this  world 
will  perish  a  little  later  but  as  surely.     His  name 
alone  shall  endure  throughout  all  generations ! 
If  I  am  found  capable  of  awakening  in  the 
hearts  of  good  men,  some  higher  and  director 
and  more  dominant  thoughts  of  Him  and  of  His 
works,  I  have  not  written,  and  have  not  lived 
in  vain.     If  I  am  not,  I  have  done  my  poor  best, 
and  may  be  blameless  in  unworthily  executing 
so  worthy  an   enterprise.     In  such  a  glorious 
field  of  effort  failure  is  not  a  sin,  feebleness  is 
not  a  reproach.     The  scheme  of  natural  things 
in  which   God  has  placed   me,   has   for  many 
years  of  personal  solitude,  apart  from  all  social 
sympathy,  been  to  me  eloquent  of  Him.     I  have 
lived  long  and  alone  with  Him  in  Nature.     If 
my  superiors  in  Natural  Science  smile  at  me  as 
one  grasping  at  some  incognoscible  ideal,  then 
I  finally  say — without  Him  I  cannot,  after  the 
most  patient  efforts,  interpret  Nature.    I  have  re- 
peatedly tested   your  Science  vv^hich  dispenses 
with  Him,  and  I  find  it  to  be  an  empty  vanity ; 


CONCISE  RECAPITULATION.  539 

an  immense  unfolding  of  aimless  life ;  a  sum  of 
causeless  effects ;  an  endless  series  of  inexplicable 
antecedents ;  an  organized  delusion,  a  mean- 
ingless mockery ! 

If  my  higher  belief  be  a  delusion,  at  least  my 
delusion  is  better  than  yours ;  yours  ends  in 
avowed  darkness,  while  mine  ends  in  dawning 
Lipfht.  Of  two  dreams,  one  of  which  terminates 
in  an  awaking  to  Despair,  and  the  other  to 
Hope,  which  dream  is  the  more  dreamworthy? 
With  this  simple  question  of  Utilitarianism,  I 
close  a  volume  which  has  cost  its  author  far 
more  than  he  cares  to  confess,  and  far  more  than 
his  readers  will  be  concerned  to  learn. 


A  Concise  Recapitulation  of  the  leading  prin- 
ciples, which  were  in  the  author's  mind,  and 
have  been  advocated  in  this  volume,  may  not 
be  inappropriate  at  its  conclusion. 

This  world  of  ours,  and  the  universe  so  far  as 
we  know  it,  form  a  magnificent  manifestation  to 
man,  and  perhaps  to  higher  beings,  of  the  crea- 
tive and  conserving  Deity,  without  whose  crea- 
tion, and  conservation  in  perpetual  exercise,  the 
totpJityof  existing  things,  organic  and  inorganic, 
which  we  call  Nature,  would  not  have  come 
into,    and    would    not    continue    in    existence. 


540  CONCISE  RECAPITULATION, 

Every  relation,  or  law,  or  method,  we  discern 
and  discover  in  Nature,  and  in  ourselves,  is 
an  already  accepted,  or  an  additional  proof  of 
this  fundamental  position.  The  advances  and 
adjustments  of  scientific  research,  all,  when 
rightly  interpreted,  contribute  to  strengthen 
and  enlarge  this  view. 

Metaphysic,  though  it  raises  serious  difficul- 
ties, and  entangles  us  in  some  problems  which 
are  absolutely  insoluble,  does  not  necessarily 
lead  us  to  hopeless  Nihilism,  or  to  any  form  of 
irreligion.  Monism,  Atheism,  Pantheism, 
Spinozism,  Buddhism,  Godless  Naturalism, 
all  have  their  inherent  discrepancies,  self-con- 
tradictions, and  socially  pernicious  results. 
However  modified  in  present  forms,  they 
still  carry  with  them  the  same  defectiveness 
which  is  inseparable  from  them  in  any  form. 

Physical  or  Natural  systems  of  recent  date 
have  many  similar,  and  inherent,  and  inseparable 
defects.  Endeavouring  to  displace  all  theo- 
logical considerations,  they  aim  to  interpret 
Nature  by  herself — that  is.  Nature  suffices  for 
her  own  phenomena  without  God.  With  this 
divorce  of  principles  the  author  is  at  utter 
variance,  and  has  briefly  shown  how  the  ex- 
treme consequences  of  such  exclusive  Naturalism 


CONCISE  RECAPITULATION.  541 


would  prove  socially  degrading  and  ultimately 
morally  destructive.  While  holding  widely  aloof 
from  ecclesiastical  and  theological  narrowness, 
he  holds  equally  aloof  from  scientific  narrowness. 
He  argues  that  Natural  Science  and  Advanced 
Theology  are  mutually  and  materially  helpful. 
He  has  shown  in  the  preceding  pages  that  some 
of  the  most  pretentious  and  elaborate  Natural- 
istic systems  of  the  present  time  fail  in  many 
momentous  and  essential  requisites.  He  has 
likewise  shown  that  every  interpretation  of 
Nature  fails  which  does  not  include  Man  as  a 
distinctly  and  divinely  endowed  interpreter. 
All  this  is  concisely  shown,  because  expansion 
and  justification  against  controversy  would  de- 
mand volumes.  No  physical  genesis  of  the 
universe,  in  whatever  form  it  may  be  the  popular 
system  of  the  day,  will  prevail  to  destroy 
the  great  broad  principles  of  Christian  Philo- 
sophy. Physical  agencies  are  not  Spirit  or 
Intelligence,  and  no  confusion  of  terms  can 
make  them  such.  The  ultimate  reality  is  not 
interpreted  by  the  verbal  figment, — Force, 
unless  Man's  spiritual  faculty  be  absent,  and 
the  materially  dynamic  becomes  tyrannical 
and  autocratic. 

The  exclusion  of  a  Religious  and  Theistic 


542  CONCISE  RECAPITULATION, 


interpretation  of  total  Nature  is  not  logical, 
but  is  dexterously  perversive.  Systems  can  be 
presented  plausibly  and  speciously  to  imperfect 
perception,  while  they  are  utterly  wanting-  in 
comprehensiveness.  They  demand  the  exclusion 
of  fundamental  principles  of  Natural  and  Meta- 
physical Science,  and  become  intolerable  to 
those  who  discern  their  assumptions,  inadequa- 
cies, paradoxes,  and  pernicious  consequences. 

The  author  has  endeavoured  to  expose  the 
emptiness    of  the    verbal    abstractions    which 
though  professedly  metaphors,  are  yet  assump- 
tively   endowed  with    personal    qualities,  with 
choice,    with    selective,    formative,    and    con- 
structive powers  ;  and,  notwithstanding,  defini- 
tively represent  nothing  material  or  spiritual — 
nothing  that  can  be  a  true  and  sufficient  dy- 
namic.    They  are  presumed  inherent  powers  of 
Nature,    which    are    entirely  the  figments   of 
theorists.     Whatever  they  represent  is,  when 
fairly  interpreted,  the  manner  and  method  of 
Divine  operation. 

The  substantial  value  of  established  Natural 
Science  as  an  Aid  to  Christian  Faith  has  been 
specially  dwelt  upon.  When  divested  of  hypo- 
thetical and  inconsistent  assumptions,  it  will  be 
found  to  be  invaluable  to  the  cultured  Theist.  It 


CONCISE  RECAPITULATION,  543 

will  supply  him  with  many  suggestive  analogies, 
accompany  him  in  religious  meditation,  dis- 
close new  views  of  God,  Man,  and  Organic 
Nature.  It  will  in  short  lead  to  that  conception 
of  Material  and  Immaterial  Unity  v/hich  is  the 
grandest  view  of  all  creation  within  our  con- 
ception. 

If  these  positions  be  well  founded  and  sus- 
tained, then  God  is  not  the  ever  Unknowable, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  the  ever  Knowable  Being 
of  beings.  Knowledge  grows.  Science  grows. 
Nature  grows  ;  and  in  their  growth  the  know- 
ledge of  God  grows.  It  widens  upon  the 
widening  intellect  of  Man, — pervades  his 
whole  being,  and  associates  the  expansion 
of  his  intelligence  with  all  intelligence  in  the 
universe  in  which  God  displays  Himself  to  Man 
and  Angels.  Such  is  the  true,  long,  and  much 
neglected  Higher  Ministry  of  Nature  to  Man. 


No.  3,  Supplement  to  Catalogue,  Sept,,  187^,.  \ 


G.  P.  PUTNAM  &  SONS' 

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T 


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